TOKYO — In Japan, the country that gave the world innovations like instant noodles and the Sony Walkman, science has always been seen as a profession that is supposed to produce something useful. The Japanese celebrate the tinkerers and technicians, the no-nonsense types who built the postwar economic dynamo.
Pure scientists, cloistered away in underfunded labs and pursuing their dreamy theories, have never caught the national imagination. They just aren't practical enough.
So it has been a particularly sweet time for those Japanese scientists since researcher Shinya Yamanaka announced in November that he had cracked one of science's toughest challenges: creating the equivalent of human stem cells with a technique that does not require an embryo.
The discovery has turned Yamanaka, 45, into a most unlikely phenomenon in Japan: a celebrity scientist. Media crews stormed his lab at Kyoto University. The government has paid millions of dollars to continue the research.
Only Yamanaka has seemed bored by the fuss, a bit irritated even. He resents taking time away from his work to explain the details of his discovery to laymen over and over. He'd rather be back in his lab, he tells interviewers, turning his discovery into a practical medical technology that can help people suffering myriad ailments, from spinal injuries to heart disease.
"I was a physician before I became a scientist," Yamanaka said, explaining why he has no interest in becoming rich or famous. "I am mostly interested in what this discovery can do for patients."
Yamanaka's determination to show he is only in it for the public good, even in what should be his moment of glory, fits with how the Japanese expect scientists to behave. Humble. Disdainful of wealth.
They want them to be like neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, who turned his ideas on how to stave off senility into a huge industry of books and video games on brain training. Sure, Kawashima likes to brag -- that he hasn't taken any of the millions in royalties he's entitled to. He doesn't even want to take a vacation, he says, preferring to devote every available hour to helping the elderly.
Not everyone thinks the emphasis on modesty is a good thing. They wonder whether the limited recognition might be one reason young Japanese are turned off from careers in science. The science establishment has recognized the problem and is taking the first steps to make changes, pushing for the appointment of younger scientists to top jobs.
