A report by a Japanese think tank showed South Korea ranked ninth in the world for the average number of natural sciences theses that fall within the top ten-percent in citation frequency.

According to the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy under Japan's education ministry, the ranking covers theses published between 2021 and 2023. China topped the list, followed by the United States in second place.

Other countries in the top ten include the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and France.

While Japan ranked fifth in the total number of theses, it fell to 13th place when looking only at those in the top ten-percent citation bracket.

Asahi Shimbun noted that Japan’s 2023 research and development spending of 22 trillion yen, or 149 billion U.S. dollars, ranked third globally. 

However, this figure is only one-point-four times higher than in 2000, compared to a 37-point-two-fold increase in China and an eight-point-six-fold increase in South Korea over the same period.