I hear lots of frustration in your post and I believe you have encountered with such difficulties yourself. But I just want to set some facts straight -
During the Bubble economy, many new Japanese universities were built and many US universities set up a shop in Japan - many without certifications from Monbusho. The economy was great, and the Japanese had money to spend. Those students who would not be able to go to the "established" Japanese universities or who would just want to say "Oh I go to English name University" to the friends chose to go to the US universities in Japan. So from the start, the demographic was working against the universities. I agree that Monbusho committed many mistakes - one of them was to make it possible for the US universities to set up a shop in Japan without thorough policy discussions.
As a graduate of Japanese university (established one) and a graduate degree holder of an ivy league school, I take an offense to your statement about Japanese university students. It is the statement often used and "appreciated" by the US media on Japanese college students, but it is the total generalization of one population. I know students who sleep in the kenkyu s***su (research room) to carry out experiments daily, students who have dreams to become something, someone. My nephew was always in his research room, night and day. I did not go to elite universities but I did work hard so that I could study my field of study in the US universities with good faculty members in the field. But I did enjoy the college days a lot just like many college students here in the States.
We all dream of those days of "Lifetime employment." No more. Hard fact of life has descended upon us.
Yes, the University is ranked by hensachi. But isn't;t it the same as US News and World Report rankings - SAT scores?
In my opinion, the lost decade has done lots of harm and some good to the country. One good thing is that people started to think about their career and the life. Young people have realised that University is not the only option.
I cannot agree with you. There could have been some truths in the statement 20 years ago. But due to the low birth rate, Japanese universities are struggling. They have realised the need to attract star professors to attract students. Students do not come to university just to be free or just because they have to. That was 20 years ago. If they do not want to go to an university, there are other options. Going to the university is no longer the only option. So the rate of students going to universities has been going down. Japanese universities need to come up with ideas to survive - by offering innovative courses and providing "innovative professors."
Monbusho reformed the lower school to Yutori kyoiku by giving younger students more freedome in hope to make the students capable of thinking outside the box. As a result, Japan's education level in terms of math in the world ranking dropped significantly. Now the kids who were educated by this Monbusho's Yutori kyoiku is entering into the work force and the country is watching how they will perform. Monbusho will change the yutori kyoiku again to tighten things up again. So yes, the department is more interested in the lower education, not higher education.
There are many capable professors here in this country, and if the language is not the problem, I am sure Japanese universities would love to have them to be a flagship professor. It will be indeed hard to hire a professor who is an expert in say chemistry but does not speak a word in Japanese.
I agree that there are professors who have been in the Japanese university just waiting to get retired, no new academic papers to establish. But there are many who are not. Look at the Nobel Prize winners this year" from Japanese universities (one from the US university)."
Japanese politicians and Japanese bureaucrats are nothing we are proud of. 30-40 years ago, we used to hear that the country was OK even if we had bad politicians as long as we have good bureaucrats. We can laugh at the comment now."
I hope you do not think the agriculture issues and the academic issues are the same. Japan has a right to protect its agriculture when we have to rely most of our foods on the foreign countries. Remember in the early 90s when Japan had no rice crop due to the adversary weather? Rice is something we eat 3 times a day and we did not have rice in the stores. The country had to import rice from other countries. What if nobody had enough rice to feed her people and sell to Japan? Japan need to protect farmers.
For US professors to be employed by Japanese universities, I believe the language is a key issue. Not many Japanese students understand English thanks to the Monbusho's failed foreign language policy. It is hard for me to think an English speaking history teacher even s/he is the excellent teacher. It is the same here in the States - it is hard to hire a Japanese teacher to teach history even if she has PhD in history if s/he does not speak any English. In the past, US auto industry criticised Japan - driving "the wrong side of the street" is a sign of protectionism. They did not want to adapt, they wanted Japan to adapt the American way.
In many years, many ESL teachers in Japan had no degrees - many military wives used to teach English and even now many native English speakers work as ESL teachers without any experience. But as I heard it from my friend who used to teach English in a Japanese university, universities seem to have realised the importance of quality teachers in ESL. My friend's students loved, trust, and respected her because she was the professor that they had not have. She cared and worked hard everyday for the students.
Although I did disagree a lot with you, I agree American professors are hard working and always available for the students. They continue to improve by doing research and attending conference. Having been through Japanese education (I went to a very liberal private school), I am sorry for the Japanese professors though. If they have more enthusiastic students, they may have more incentive to improve. Again, the same chicken and egg discussion... good students make good teachers? Good teachers make good students?
Japan is going through the significant period of change. Financial problems at universities can result in good as the lost decade did some good in young people (and bad).
There are some excellent Japanese scholars in this country because the environment is much better for scholars. But I need to add they all speak English more or less - enough to go by in their feilds. I hope more Americans do learn Japanese if they want to tap the Japanese academic market.
Sorry you had the terrible time in Japan.
The predecessor university to AIU was an American university. It was far from the best university in the States, but it was a real university. It had enrollment and financial problems because the protectionist Ministry of Education in Japan refused to certify it as a university. Thus is was ineligible for funds and students shied away. Most of the Japanese students who did come expected to graduate without studying, and thus were dissatisfied with the school.
Most of the problems described here about AIU are in fact typical of Japanese universities. Most Japanese, especially students, cannot imagine universities as places of research and education. Universities are the only vacation most Japanese get, sandwiched inbetween the high school from hell and the lifetime employment for which there is no escape. Universities are ranked not by their curricula or faculty, but by the difficulty of their entrance exams and their selectivity in admission. That is how AIU brags about itself, its selectivity in admissions.
Because the faculty (and education and research) are irrelevant, there is no incentive to hire qualified teachers or scholars, much less the best available. In fact, there is incentive to hire people who are NOT qualified, so they will not embarrass their seniors by actually knowing anything about the subject they were hired to "teach". This is particularly the case with foreigners, but is also the case with Japanese. The result is one of the most disfunctional institutions in Japanese society, one which the Ministry itself swears it intends to reform.
On the one hand the Ministry claims it wants to reform, on the other it has no idea what the problem is, or how the structures the Ministry itself maintains support that problem. As far as I can tell, the bureaucrats in the Ministry have only Bachelors's degrees, with no experience of either teaching or research. Yet they are in charge of the reform, both establishing national universities and accrediting all universities. You don't have to be a market fundamentalist to know that having that kind of bureaucracy is asking for trouble.
Consider the fact that rice farmers are well aware that they are being protected from foreign competition. Most Japanese professors, including those running AIU, are totally clueless. Like rice farming, Japanese university employment is a form of disguised welfare. Thus the Ministry frowns on hiring foreigners. What state in the US wants to import foreigners to draw welfare checks? How many British communities invite immigrants to queue for dole checks?
espect Japanese scholars the way they do American scholars, not realizing that the best Japanese scholars are working in the US. If they really wanted to improve Japanese universities, or had a clue about how to do so, they would end protectionism and demand that preference be given to the most qualified scholars. Incestuous "university journals" would be replaced with blind peer review. But such administrative reforms are not even on the Ministry's radar screen. They won't happen.
