Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Funds high-quality Japanese science by supporting researchers, international collaboration, and mobility across universities and institutes.

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) is Japan's sole independent research funding agency. Founded in 1932 with an imperial endowment, it now operates as an Independent Administrative Institution under MEXT oversight and supports research across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its mission is to keep support stable and long-running rather than episodic.

JSPS runs KAKENHI, Japan's flagship competitive grant system, together with postdoctoral and invitational fellowships, Core-to-Core cooperation, international joint research, and the LEADER scheme for excellent young researchers. KAKENHI spans categories from Scientific Research (A/B/C) and Specially Promoted Research to Early-Career Scientists, Challenging Research, Research Activity Start-Up, and Fostering Joint International Research; its ceiling reaches JPY 500 million. Some functions moved from MEXT to JSPS from FY1999, and the peer-review system draws on roughly 8,000 reviewers. Results are published in the public KAKEN database.

Applicants usually work through Japanese host institutions, and proposals move through Japanese-language forms with English reference versions for foreign hosts. The fellowships are also international-facing: postdoctoral and invitational routes accept overseas applicants and bring researchers into Japanese labs. JSPS is strongest for researchers who need peer-reviewed, field-specific funding or a structured route into Japanese academic networks.