Sorry I didn't know you had responded to me. I do spend a lot of time away from here.
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.
I don't think any of them had recognition (the equivalent of accreditation) from Monbusho, did they? If you know of one, please let us know. But AFAIK they were all, with the exception of Temple, invited by Monbusho. Their bad treatment was flagrant favoritism and protectionism, but higher education seems to be the only US industry that didn't squawk.
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.
Uh, nothing personal, but I don't think you were privy to the discussions that did take place.
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.
Well, I'm sorry you disagree, but then you agree down below. Sure, there are hardworking students in Japan and goofoffs in the US. The difference is that in the US we can flunk them out. In Japan they just stay around until the profs finally get sick of them and give them a degree. It cheapens the value of the degree. I think that even AIU's Gregory Clark complained that Japanese universities weren't allowed to set up a system for flunking students out. It's the system, not the people, at fault.
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?
No it's not the same. I don't mean to defend the USN&WR system, or any other, especially when there seems to be a mindless fad for ranking going on, but the various systems for ranking universities in use outside Japan measure many other variables besides the previous learning of the students. I notice in other messages here that AIU is still boasting, not about what its students learn, but about the high level of incoming freshmen they have. Anyone who expects to teach there should understand that they should not expect their students to work. They already worked.
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."
Maybe you're right. I no longer know and I'm past caring. If it takes Japanese professors 20 years to wake up and smell the coffee then Japan is not attracting its best minds into university teaching. I only know what I read in the papers anymore. I know that Japan is still a major source for foreign students coming to the US, while Japanese universities are begging for students. I don't think that would be true if the change you speak of were really happening.
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.
Sounds to me like the Ministry doesn't know what it's doing, just floundering around, from your description.
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)."
Yeah, I know there are good scholars in Japan. I met a lot when I was there. They were as frustrated as I was, maybe more so because they had no other place to go. They will never rise to the top. It's the system, not the people, that is the problem.
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."
Yes, and the politicians you hired to replace the bureaucrats turn out to be narrow-minded, nationalistic religious bigots. Is the problem rooted somewhere in the educational system?
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.
Of course I don't think they are the same. There is a much better argument, which you make, for protecting agriculture than for protecting higher education. As long as Monkasho is both player and referee the system won't be fair. They should either privatize their national universities (real privatization, not this phony incorporation) or get out of the accreditation business. Let the accreditation be done fairly, by a neutral body, or by the universities themselves, as a whole. MLB doesn't let catchers call strikes and fouls.
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.
Hmm, did the US auto industry really say that? But they couldn't compete in their own market. There's no comparison with higher education. Japan may have set the world standard for cars, but the US set the world standard for universities. I'm not too sure about the language thing, though. concerned8 kept harping on it, but didn't really know what he was talking about. I think there are problems getting the best Japanese professors teaching at the best Japanese universities, which are more profound than any discrimination against foreigners.
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.
ESL, really the "English conversation" classes, are something else. The job there is not teacher but informant. It's not the same as college level English. MSU-A spent a lot of time finding very high level, highly qualified teachers of college level English as a foreign language. AIU not only destroyed that legacy, they did it in an illegal maneuver designed to maximize the damage to those people's lives and careers. Yet they all wound up at better jobs, at the National University of Singapore, in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. So who's laughing now?
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?
Regardless of the fact that you here change your mind about the students at Japanese universities, I still insist that the system, not the individuals, and certainly not their nationalities, is the issue. The system at Japanese universities may be changing, but I have seen no evidence of that.
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.
Yeah, but would the payoff for them be worth it? From what I hear now the Ministry is cutting salaries and bonuses and making the work more onerous. How do they expect to attract quality people by making the conditions worse?
Sorry you had the terrible time in Japan.
Don't worry, I'll get over it. If I haven't already. (^_~)
