Japan’s Second Science and Technology Basic Plan, adopted in 2001, set a goal for international science prizes. Japan was to produce winners of prizes such as the Nobel at the level of the major European countries: gojū-nenkan ni Nōberu-shō jushōsha sanjūnin teido, about 30 Nobel laureates in 50 years.
In 2026, a white paper of the Ministry of Education noted that 25 years later, more than 20 Japanese researchers had already won a Nobel Prize.