Julia Ardón [es] writes in her blog about the possible reasons for the request:

La Asociación Tibetana de Costa Rica por supuesto salta y explica lo que entiende como un desaire de claro cálculo político, ya que por esos días tendrá visita oficial el Presidente de China y se podría molestar o peor aún: decidir no venir. ( Y eso no le conviene al gobierno! No ve que los chinos nos están dando mucha plata?!)

The Dalai Lama's visit was scheduled for September 10, however, based on Arias' formal request the visit was cancelled. President Arias stated that he would not be in the country. Instead it did not appear to be a coincidence, especially with the planned visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao, especially in light of the support given to the country. Costa Rica has drawn closer to the Chinese government in recent years. In June 8, 2007, Costa Rica broke diplomatic relations with Taiwan [es] and started formal relations with China. Later, Arias was received by China with full honors [es] provided to friendly countries.

La Suiza Centroamericana [es] is displeased about Arias lack of outspokeness regarding human rights abuses in China.

Lo que si nos sorprende, y nos causa tremendo disgusto, es que nuestro gobierno de turno, presidido por otro Premio Nobel de la Paz, haya guardado un silencio absoluto y sepulcral ante las atrocidades cometidas por su nuevo amiguito oriental.

Many come to the conclusion that the presidents and developing nations must make risky political calculations and not everyone will look at it in the same way, in terms of what is most convenient for Costa Rica and what is the best for the majority. Being president and making decisions must not be easy, and even when one must say to a friend, for now it is best not to come to my house.

Thumbnail photo by Ferne Miller

According to an article [ja] published by Mainichi Shinbun on August 19th, the government is promoting this research, which will cost over 1.7 billion yen, in response to the problematic increase in hikikomori [引きこもり] (i.e. individuals who isolate from the family and the rest of the world shutting themselves in their room for months or years) and “enraged youngsters” [kireru wakamono/キレる若者].

Among bloggers who commented on the article by journalist Taku Nishikawa [西川拓], many (e.g. Shigeru Kurokawa [黒川滋] in his blog Kyō mo aruku [きょうも歩く] [ja]) expressed a feeling of disappointment about the Japanese government's resolution, which seems paradoxical. Kurokawa comments that while claiming to solve sociological and cultural issues using brain science, it is left up to the Ministry of Education and not to the Ministry of Health and Welfare to find the chemical formulas that will provide answers about the phenomena of hikikomori and “enraged youngsters”.

Another blogger, Kaze no hōsen [風のほーせん], says:

記事のような研究も必要なことかもしれないが、厚生労働省ならともかく、文部科学省にはこうした研究よりも、教育学的あるいは社会学的な観点からの考察が望まれる。文部科学省には「引きこもり」や「キレる」の原因は、現在社会における人間関係のあり方や、学校教育をはじめとした教育のあり方にこそ、求めてほしい。

[…]

こうした教育現場での「キレる」原因を、こどもたちの先天的な要因に求める研究をいの一番に取り組むような姿勢は、その教育の大元締めである文部科学省の責任放棄に近い態度だと言っていい。文部科学省は、薬物治療でもって、学校現場でのいじめや暴力を解決しようとでも思っているのだろうか。

Other Japanese bloggers expressed that the claim in the Mainichi article, stressing that the Ministry research was aimed at analyzing relations between brain mechanism and “rage”, was tendentious. In particular, there was this quotation of a post left by an anonymous commenter to a 2ch thread:

3910: 大学院で脳科学を研究していますが
要は「脳が社会的な環境をどう構築して適合しているのか」についての
研究なんだが、この文を読む限り文科省がそれを無理やり「切れる」に
結び付けているように思える。
しかし実際は変体毎日が文科省の報道資料から一部文言を
ピックアップしての印象操作だと思われる。
ちゃんとした結果が得られるかどうかは別として、
研究自体は悪くないし、この研究に予算をつぎ込む事も問題ないと思う。
問題なのは変体新聞がのさばってる事。
さらに問題なのはこの脳科学委員会の委員に毎日の記者が居る事。
http://www.lifescience.mext.go.jp/files/pdf/6_111.pdf