Rebuilding Public Trust in Science for Policy-Making

摘要

Until recently, there was little recognition within Japan's science policy circle of the need to discuss the role of science in government policy-making. A rather innocent notion that the established knowledge and wisdom of scientists would ensure proper decision-making was prevalent The great earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident that occurred in March 2011 induced a radical alteration of such a simple, optimistic view on science in policy-making. In the nation's bitter struggle for recovery, scientists sometimes created confusion by supplying divergent rec ommendations on evacuation, food safety, and cleanup.