[The Nikkei and the UK’s leading academic data provider Clarivate analyzed trends in COVID-19 research, by country.] The analysis revealed that Japan is lagging behind other countries in publishing academic papers on COVID-19. As of the end of August, the total number of theses published in Japan stood at 342 and they were cited 2,078 times, both figures are less than about one-tenth of the statistics for the U.S. and China [which lead the international community in COVID-19 research]. (Abridged)