2021 tables: Institutions - physical sciences - corporate

The 2021 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Table criteria

# Institution Share 2019 Share 2020 Count 2020 Change in Adjusted Share* 2019–2020
1 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Japan 15.88 10.59 22 -38.0%
2 Toyota Group, Japan 6.17 4.88 16 -26.6%
3 Hitachi, Ltd., Japan 1.98 4.77 20 123.3%
4 NHK Science and Technology Research Laboratories (NHK STRL), Japan 0.50 3.37 5 527.0%
5 Panasonic Corporation, Japan 1.18 2.84 6 124.1%
6 Mitsubishi Group, Japan 0.42 1.98 5 339.0%
7 Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Japan 1.10 1.63 8 37.5%
8 Toshiba Corporation, Japan 3.85 1.50 4 -63.8%
9 Novel Crystal Technology, Inc., Japan 0.51 1.29 2 135.1%
10 SCIOCS Co. Ltd., Japan 0.95 1.00 1 -2.6%
10 KYOCERA Corporation, Japan 1.00 1 N/A
11 Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Japan 0.01 0.95 2 7905.0%
12 TDK Corporation, Japan 0.46 0.83 4 68.5%
13 Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd., Japan 0.71 2 N/A
14 Natsume Optical Corporation (NOC), Japan 0.67 2 N/A
15 ULVAC, Inc., Japan 0.24 0.66 3 154.4%
16 Canon Inc., Japan 0.64 2 N/A
17 Ricoh Company, Ltd., Japan 0.50 0.60 1 11.5%
17 Adamant Namiki Precision Jewel Co., Ltd., Japan 0.60 1 N/A
18 FujiFilm Corporation, Japan 0.08 0.53 2 485.0%
19 Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., Japan 0.50 1 N/A
20 Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., Japan 1.14 0.50 3 -59.2%
21 Asahi Kasei Corporation, Japan 0.11 0.47 3 285.2%
22 Nissan Chemical Corporation, Japan 0.44 1 N/A
23 Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), Japan 0.50 0.42 1 -22.5%
24 Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd., Japan 0.35 1 N/A
25 Horiba, Ltd., Japan 0.27 0.31 2 5.0%
26 UV Craftory Co., Ltd. (UVC), Japan 0.38 0.30 1 -25.6%
27 PI-Crystal, Inc., Japan 0.29 2 N/A
28 Nippon Sheet Glass Group (NSG Group), Japan 0.31 0.29 5 -13.1%
29 Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan 0.28 2 N/A
30 Sony Corporation, Japan 0.94 0.27 1 -73.7%
31 Fuji Electric Co., Ltd., Japan 0.23 1 N/A
32 Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Japan 0.20 0.21 1 -0.4%
33 Toray Industries, Inc., Japan 0.11 0.21 2 85.1%
34 Rigaku Corporation, Japan 0.20 1 N/A
35 Nippon Shokubai Co., Ltd., Japan 0.29 0.19 1 -38.0%
36 JEOL Ltd., Japan 2.63 0.17 4 -94.0%
37 Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Japan 0.33 0.17 1 -53.5%
37 NOF Corporation, Japan 0.17 1 N/A
38 Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan 1.17 0.15 2 -88.4%
39 JT Biohistory Research Hall (BRH), Japan 0.14 1 N/A
40 JSR Corporation, Japan 0.01 0.13 1 1677.6%
40 Harima Chemicals Group, Inc., Japan 0.13 1 N/A
40 World Lab., Japan 0.13 1 N/A
41 Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd., Japan 0.11 1 N/A
42 Osaka Organic Chemical Industry Ltd., Japan 0.10 1 N/A
42 Showa Denko K.K. (SDK), Japan 0.10 1 N/A
43 Shimadzu Corporation, Japan 0.01 0.09 1 1192.8%
44 Arithmer Inc., Japan 0.08 1 N/A
45 Asylum Research Oxford Instruments, Japan 0.08 1 N/A
46 Advanced Engineering Services Co., Ltd., Japan 0.07 1 N/A
47 Kowa Company, Ltd., Japan 0.01 0.06 1 788.8%
48 K.K. CYBO, Japan 0.04 2 N/A
49 NEC Corporation, Japan 0.70 0.03 1 -95.6%

Footnote

Each year, the Nature Index publishes tables based on counts of high-quality research outputs in the previous calendar year. Users please note:

  1. The data behind the tables are based on a relatively small proportion of total research papers, they cover the natural sciences only and outputs are non-normalized (that is, they don’t reflect the size of the country or institution, or its overall research output).
  2. The Nature Index is one indicator of institutional research performance. The metrics of Count and Share used to order Nature Index listings are based on an institution’s or country’s publication output in 82 natural-science journals through 2022, in 2023 64 health-science journals were added to the Index. The 146 journals in the Nature Index were selected on reputation by an independent panel of leading scientists in their fields.
  3. Nature Index recognizes that many other factors must be taken into account when considering research quality and institutional performance; Nature Index metrics alone should not be used to assess institutions or individuals.
  4. Nature Index data and methods are transparent and available under a creative commons licence at nature.com/nature-index/.
  5. Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The Nature Index database undergoes regular updating, corrections, adjustment of institutional hierarchies, and removal of retracted papers and thus the live website can differ from the frozen annual tables.

*The change in adjusted Share accounts for the small annual variation in the total number of articles in Nature Index journals. Share values have been adjusted to 2022 levels to calculate the percentage change. For more information on the adjustment, please see the Adjusted metric explainer.