Article : How Japan Lost the Plot on Open Access

Globally, the open access (OA) movement has long sought to liberate scholarly communication from commercial publishers. But Japan pursues open access and open science from a unique context; that approach has often blurred the OA landscape and left Japanese academics perplexed. In this article, I will explore how economic history and national policy have shaped a uniquely Japanese approach to open access and consider what this means for the country’s ongoing relationship to the OA movement.