On 28–29 September 2026, the 12th Annual Conference of the Research Administrators Council of Japan took place at Yokohama National University. This year’s theme: “Opening New Frontiers from the Port of Yokohama: R&D Management and the ‘Revival of Science’ – The Role of URAs in a New Phase of Research Strengthening.” Research management professionals from across Japan came together to explore how research administration can drive innovation and scientific excellence.

The conference set a record: more than 1,000 attendees, well above the 800–900 organizers expected. University leaders, research administrators, government officials, research institutes, corporate teams, and international research managers were all in the room.

Open access (OA) in Japan has moved from the “discussion phase” to the “implementation phase.” The question is no longer whether institutions need an OA strategy. It’s how to manage compliance, support researchers, and amplify the visibility and impact of their work. As that happens, university research administrators (URAs) are moving beyond administration toward strategic support and institutional capability. We want to partner with them, alongside our library partners, to strengthen research intelligence and outcomes.

At the Wiley booth, we had many conversations around:

• Global trends in Transformational Agreements (TAs)
• The benefits of publishing in OA hybrid journals
• Publishing webinars and sessions for researchers

Meeting URAs from across the country, besides librarians, was a real highlight.

Wiley’s Luncheon Seminar

On day two, we hosted a one-hour luncheon seminar with Dr. Noriko Osumi, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and Lilly O’Scanaill, Program Manager, Inclusion & Community at Wiley. John Morris, Open Research APAC Manager, moderated. The shared message: URAs don’t just strengthen research capability. They make sure research reaches the people who need it through open access, communication support, network building, and institutional systems.

Here are three of our key takeaways.
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1)     Immediate open access and global collaboration fuel impact

Dr. Osumi shared data suggesting that immediate OA drives more views, citations, and Altmetric attention than OA after an embargo. Japan’s OA share passed 50% of papers in 2023. She was also candid that TAs don’t solve everything. Prices keep rising, and national policy now requires immediate OA for papers funded by certain grants. Where high APCs are out of reach, institutional repositories can help, and each university needs an approach that fits. Her sharpest data point was collaboration. Among papers with only domestic authors, 4.5% reach the top 10% most cited. With international co-authors from two or more countries, that rises to 23%.
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2)     Communication and brand drive visibility, and URAs power both

Don’t rely on impact factors alone, Dr. Osumisaid. Publicize work with strong social relevance too, in Japanese and English, and time it to publication so it doesn’t read as old news. That means URAs need to hear about results as papers near acceptance, so regular conversations with researchers matter. She also pointed to researcher profile pages that link papers, Altmetric scores, and social accounts, and recommended LinkedIn to the Japanese audience. On brand, she urged universities to define it at the institutional level: who they exist for, what their strengths are, and who they want to reach. Claims need proof, and values should be simple enough that every staff member and student can explain them.
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3)     Supporting the next generation of researchers

Lilly showed how inclusion and equity need to be built into the whole research and publishing lifecycle. Her example – informed by STM Japan presentation “Inclusive Scholarly Publishing from the Perspective of a Researcher with Visual Impairment” by Erika Matsuda (Tsukuba University of Technology) - was a researcher with visual impairment, dyslexia, and autism, and how accessible systems lower barriers for quality research to get published. That means free-format submission, review focused on merit rather than language, and accessible formats like plain-language summaries and image descriptions.
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John noted that women make up about 19% of researchers in Japan, up from 15.3% in 2016 but still roughly half the OECD average. Early-career researchers face their own challenges, from evolving open science practices to communicating their work. As trusted advisors, URAs are often the first people researchers turn to for guidance on funding, career development and wellbeing. Supporting women and early-career researchers isn’t a side initiative. It’s a critical investment in the future strength of the research ecosystem.

Lilly’s practical starting points for URAs:

·       Assess the diversity of your own organization

·       Use your networks to bring diverse experts into committees and boards

·       Follow regional and international industry groups to exchange insights
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How this shapes what we do next

The session brought two views together, one from inside academia and one from international scholarly publishing, and both pointed at the same challenges. For us, that means building with URAs the kind of relationships we’ve built with library directors across Japan, with libraries and URAs working side by side.
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We’re exploring practical workshops for women and early-career researchers, covering self-promotion, social media communication, career development and mentoring. Wiley also offers free webinars and workshops for Asia-Pacific, including sessions in Japanese language and time zone, and we welcome requests for specific audiences and topics.
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Next year’s conference is 20–21 October 2027 in Kyoto, and we hope to be there.
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Want to learn more about how Wiley supports libraries and open research across Asia-Pacific? Connect with a Wiley representative. Please contact us at libraryapac@wiley.com

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