Address 9-10, Kaga 1-chome, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8515, Japan
Telephone: Tokyo 03(3962)4712
Facsimile: Tokyo 03(3962)2529
Date of Establishment September 29, 1973
Annual Budget
3,951 million yen (Fiscal Year 2000)
Staff : Research 69 *
Technical 14
Administrative 29
Extra Staff for Antarctic Expeditions ** 37
Total 149
(*) Including 5 Visiting Professors, 7 Visiting Associate Professors and an Adjunct Research Fellow.
(**)Temporary government officials participating in the expeditions.
Functions of the Institute NIPR was established in Tokyo on September 29, 1973, as one of the Inter-University Research Institutes of Monbusho (Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture) to conduct polar research in Japan.
  1. Research activities of the permanent staff cover various scientific disciplines, including upper atmosphere physics, meteorology, glaciology, ea rth sciences, biological sciences and polar region engineering.

  2. NIPR is in charge of implementing the scientific and logistics programs of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE), which is under the authority of JARE Headquarters chaired by Monbusho. NIPR is responsible for maintaining four Antarctic stations: Syowa Kiti (Syowa Station) on East Ongul Island, Mizuho Kiti (Mizuho Station), Asuka Kiti (Asuka Station) and Dome Fuji Kiti (Dome Fuji Station) inland.

  3. NIPR has completed many national and international cooperative projects with research organizations outside the institute. Currently 500 Japanese investigators are affiliated with NIPR.

  4. NIPR provides postgraduate students with the opportunity to conduct their doctoral thesis research using relevant Antarctic data and analytical facilities.

  5. NIPR is responsible for collecting, processing and utilizing data and samples obtained by Antarctic and Arctic investigations. The Division of Data Collection and Processing deals with data and specimens in the fields of biology, glaciology and aurora physics. These data and specimens are used for joint research programs with other institutions at NIPR or are distributed to qualified scientists based on advice from advisory committees such as the Antarctic Meteorite Research Committee and Ice Core Research Committee. Aurora data are preserved for the World Data Center for Aurora. The Information Science Center is equipped with powerful data processing facilities, a Multipurpose Satellite Data Receiving System, and a polar information retrieval system. The Arctic Environment Research Center operates an Arctic field laboratory in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard.
    The Center for Antarctic Environment Monitoring is studying the Antarctic environmental system in conjunction with the global system. NIPR newly established an Antarctic Meteorite Research Center in 1998. The library is responsible for collecting literature relevant to polar research. It also publishes about 3,000 pages of scient ific papers annually.

  6. Permanent members of NIPR represent various national and international polar research organizations. NIPR established and continues to operate national Antarctic data centers for aurora, biology, glaciology, solid earth geophysics, geology, upper atmosphere physics and logistics in cooperation with Working Groups of SCAR(Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) of the International Council of Scientific Unions.

  7. NIPR invites visiting professors and provides research fellowships for visiting investigators from abroad. In addition, each year NIPR invites several scientists from abroad to participate in its annual symposia.