RIKEN

Founded on March 20, 1917, RIKEN (originally the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) is Japan’s flagship national research institute, headquartered in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, with seven campuses nationwide. It operates as a National Research and Development Agency, largely government funded, while maintaining autonomy in research direction. RIKEN’s mission is to advance fundamental and applied science across diverse disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, medical and life sciences, computational science, and engineering. Flagship facilities include the SPring-8 synchrotron, SACLA X-ray laser, and RIKEN Center for Computational Science. It also contributes to accelerator science, genomics, neuroscience, and high-performance computing.