Japan
Japan’s open neuroscience ecosystem is anchored by a national brain mapping programme and a genomic data archive that forms part of the global INSDC infrastructure, both with strong open data commitments.
Open Science Policy
The principal open science mandate applicable to Japanese researchers is summarised below.
| Who | What is required | For whom | In force since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinet Office National Policy on Open Access | Immediate open access to publications, by repository deposit or publication in an open access journal | Grants under four designated competitive funding systems, including the AMED strategic programmes | 2024 (applies to grants from FY2025) |
The policy covers the AMED strategic programmes that fund MINDS. No open licence is specified, and Japan has neither a rights retention mandate nor a statutory secondary publication right.
Brain Mapping
RIKEN CBS (RIKEN Center for Brain Science) is a dedicated Japanese neuroscience institute operating under RIKEN, funded by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), and the lead institution for MINDS (Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies), Japan’s national brain mapping programme funded by AMED (Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development). Brain/MINDS produces a comprehensive open atlas of the common marmoset brain, available without registration at dataportal.brainminds.jp. Phase 2 (Brain/MINDS Beyond) extends toward human neuroimaging at population scale, with the SRPBS (Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences) Multi-Disorder Neuroimaging Dataset deposited on OpenNeuro. RIKEN CBS operates an institutional open data policy through the RIKEN Open Life Science Platform and was selected as a Core Centre for the AMED Neuroscience Integration Programme in 2023.
Genomic Data Infrastructure
DDBJ (DNA Data Bank of Japan) is Japan’s member of the INSDC (International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration), synchronising daily with ENA and GenBank to form the global open nucleotide sequence archive. DDBJ also operates JGA (Japanese Genotype-phenotype Archive), Japan’s controlled-access repository for sensitive human genomic and phenotypic data, co-managed with NBDC (National Bioscience Database Center) and equivalent in function to EGA in Europe.
For open neuroscience data standards and repositories used by Japanese researchers, see Neuroimaging and Genomics.