Briefly big in Japan

[sTeamTraen]

There is quite a lot of scientific misconduct in Japan. Five of the most-retracted authors ever are Japanese and there was even a comedy-drama TV series about academic fraud (sadly no longer available online AFAICT).

So I was pleased to be able to contribute to getting some bad Japanese science taken out of circulation. Unfortunately the university chickened out of rescinding the perpetrator's PhD ("We cannot confirm that these acts of misconduct were intentional", my arse), but they administered a bollocking and will retract the relevant papers. The official notice is here and the story was reported in Japan's largest circulation newspaper here. Apparently this is a big deal for the university, Waseda, which has been trying to keep a low profile since the (much more important) Haruko Obokata stem-cell scandal.

The back story is that I was contacted in the summer of 2022 by a whistleblower, whom I mostly helped to put the complaint together and submit it in such a way that it was hard to ignore, although I also spotted a few data anomalies of my own. We went to Japan on holiday last August and I was able to meet the whistleblower and their partner, who took us out for lunch at one of the oldest restaurants in Tokyo.

[IvanV]

The research situation has developed not necessarily to the University's advantage.

There are various reasons you cannot confirm something, including politeness, face, risk of libel action. I suspect that saying you "cannot confirm" something is probably a fairly Japanese way of saying you are close to sure it is true.