It wasn't so long ago that a doctorate was the passport to a plum job and high social standing.
Those days are gone.
Today, many post-graduate students are finding it hard to land research or full-time positions at universities.
They are paying the price for having come up through the ranks at a time when government policy was to increase the number of graduate students even though there weren't sufficient academic or research posts to accommodate them all.
A fiscal 2005 survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology found that 15,923 people with doctorates did not hold full-time positions as instructors or researchers at universities, research institutions or companies.
The government decided to double the number of graduate students from 1991. As a result, the number of people admitted to doctoral programs rose from 7,813 in fiscal 1990 to 18,232 in fiscal 2003. The figure has stayed above 17,000 each year since.
Of the 15,973 who completed their degrees in 2006, only 62 percent found jobs, according to the education ministry. About 14 percent landed teaching posts at universities and elsewhere.
Thirty-six percent of the graduates from that year had no full-time positions, instead working in temporary, or "post doc," research positions, among others.
One man who spent years without a post after obtaining his doctorate in 1996 is now 44.
His expertise is in theoretical physics. Finally, though, the man will become an associate professor at a university next spring.
He had applied for university teaching posts on more than 100 occasions.
After obtaining his degree, he served as a paid researcher for only 5 1/2 years on a limited contract.
For the remaining period, he had to pay fees to secure places at universities to conduct research. He survived by working as a part-time lecturer at a number of universities, teaching at cram schools and checking inventories at libraries.
That was the only way he could afford to participate in academic meetings and international conferences to keep up with his field of expertise.
He was published in academic journals once every year.
A 37-year-old astronomer obtained his doctorate in 1999 but now works as an assistant at a university and is in charge of managing a computer server.
His contract expires next March.
He took out a 5-million-yen loan from the Japan Scholarship Foundation (now Japan Student Services Organization) when he was a graduate school student.
Currently, he is allowed to suspend repayment of the scholarship loan for a maximum of five years. He will be exempted from paying back the loan altogether if he is a member of a university's teaching staff or in other specified posts for at least 15 years, a system that has since been terminated.
"I am under constant stress while I am working on a limited-term contract as I have to continue looking for the next job," he said. "I find it difficult to take part in long-term projects when I can't see what will happen to me next year."
Ushio Fujikura, 28, a developmental molecular geneticist, completed a doctorate course in March and found a job in April as a researcher with a renewable one-year term at the graduate school of the University of Tokyo.
He said that he anticipates working under temporary contracts for several years before he lands a stable post.
"There are many people who obtained doctorates before I did who have not yet found stable work," he said.
Fujikura does not agree with the argument that Ph.D. graduates have difficulty finding employment because they stick to posts at universities and stay away from companies.
"Information about university research functions is accessible but I know little about what goes on at company research units," he said.
"There are many talented people with doctorates who have failed to find posts that reflect their talents. Doctorate graduates are national assets in whom the government has invested taxpayers' money. The government will benefit by making the best use of them."
Unlike in the United States, where graduate students are encouraged to join the corporate world or start their own businesses, Japanese doctorate holders invariably are steered to careers in academia, said Kazuyuki Miura, deputy chief of the education ministry's University Promotion Division.
"Graduate schools have educated students in a way that leaves them no other choice than to become researchers," Miura said.
Satoshi Mukuta, a senior official of the Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), noted a widespread assumption that those in doctorate courses will stay in academia.
He also noted that people with doctorates cannot always produce immediate results as expected by employer companies.
Some university officials regret they so readily went along with the government drive to raise the number of graduate students.(IHT/Asahi: June 25,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706250069.html
Monday, June 25, 2007
Local govts struggling to attract new graduates
The recent business boom may have improved job prospects for university students graduating next spring, but it has left some local governments reporting they are struggling to compete with private firms for new employees.
Ahead of employment tests for major prefectures and cities on Sunday, the Osaka prefectural government hosted a discussion for its younger employees and students during an employment seminar to attract capable university graduates.
The Miyazaki prefectural government has tried to attract applicants with a promotion featuring popular comedian-turned-Miyazaki governor, Hideo Higashikokubaru. Yet neither government has been able to reverse the decline in the number and quality of job applicants.
Recruit Co., which operates job Web sites, estimates the ratio of jobs offered to applicants who will graduate from university next spring is 2.14:1, exceeding 2 for the first time in 16 years.
Although employment examinations for local government positions are held in late June, major private firms decided on their prospective employees shortly after the Golden Week holiday in early May.
A spokesman for Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto said many students who originally planned to become public servants will not take local government employment tests as they have already been provisionally offered jobs at major private firms.
The Osaka prefectural government plans to hire about 130 new employees next year, including for administrative posts. However, the number of applicants decreased by more than 600 last year to 2,288--the third annual decline.
Currently, one in 17 college graduate job seekers is able to find employment, compared with only one in 50 students in 1996.
In January, the Osaka prefectural government organized its first discussion sessions at major universities in the Kansai region for students to meet young government workers hired over the previous three years.
"The reaction from the students was good as they could hear about real workplace situations from employees of the same generation," said one worker in charge of recruitment. "So we thought we'd had a good response. But it didn't work as we expected."
The governor of Miyazaki Prefecture invited job seekers to join the prefectural government through its Web site. However, applicants for administrative posts decreased to 498, a 15 percent drop from last year.
A government recruiter admitted they may have relied too heavily on the governor's popularity.
"The students who left the prefecture to study in big cities sought jobs at private firms, and we failed to get them to return to their hometowns to work for the government," he said.
Naoharu Yamamoto, who handles a Web site featuring information on changing careers for civil servants, said current college students view the guaranteed financial security of being public servant as a myth, noting the deficit-ridden Yubari municipal government in Hokkaido.
"It will be more difficult for local governments to secure human resources unless they make the posts more attractive," he said.
(Jun. 23, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070623TDY04005.htm
Ahead of employment tests for major prefectures and cities on Sunday, the Osaka prefectural government hosted a discussion for its younger employees and students during an employment seminar to attract capable university graduates.
The Miyazaki prefectural government has tried to attract applicants with a promotion featuring popular comedian-turned-Miyazaki governor, Hideo Higashikokubaru. Yet neither government has been able to reverse the decline in the number and quality of job applicants.
Recruit Co., which operates job Web sites, estimates the ratio of jobs offered to applicants who will graduate from university next spring is 2.14:1, exceeding 2 for the first time in 16 years.
Although employment examinations for local government positions are held in late June, major private firms decided on their prospective employees shortly after the Golden Week holiday in early May.
A spokesman for Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto said many students who originally planned to become public servants will not take local government employment tests as they have already been provisionally offered jobs at major private firms.
The Osaka prefectural government plans to hire about 130 new employees next year, including for administrative posts. However, the number of applicants decreased by more than 600 last year to 2,288--the third annual decline.
Currently, one in 17 college graduate job seekers is able to find employment, compared with only one in 50 students in 1996.
In January, the Osaka prefectural government organized its first discussion sessions at major universities in the Kansai region for students to meet young government workers hired over the previous three years.
"The reaction from the students was good as they could hear about real workplace situations from employees of the same generation," said one worker in charge of recruitment. "So we thought we'd had a good response. But it didn't work as we expected."
The governor of Miyazaki Prefecture invited job seekers to join the prefectural government through its Web site. However, applicants for administrative posts decreased to 498, a 15 percent drop from last year.
A government recruiter admitted they may have relied too heavily on the governor's popularity.
"The students who left the prefecture to study in big cities sought jobs at private firms, and we failed to get them to return to their hometowns to work for the government," he said.
Naoharu Yamamoto, who handles a Web site featuring information on changing careers for civil servants, said current college students view the guaranteed financial security of being public servant as a myth, noting the deficit-ridden Yubari municipal government in Hokkaido.
"It will be more difficult for local governments to secure human resources unless they make the posts more attractive," he said.
(Jun. 23, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070623TDY04005.htm
As Japan Ages, Universities Struggle to Fill Classrooms
When Yasunori Iwanaga was choosing universities three years ago, it was not the academic program, the strong team in judo, his favorite sport, or even the study abroad program in England that swayed him to choose Fukuoka University of Economics.
A single room at a new dormitory at Fukuoka University of Economics, where Makoto Higuchi, right, visited Kenji Kubo.
Fukuoka University, near Dazaifu, uses a new dorm as a draw.
It was the hot spring in the dormitories.
Perched immodestly on the edge of a steaming bath, a dozen judo teammates soaking happily near him, the junior in economics said he picked this university when he saw the spa pictured in a brochure. The university’s resortlike new dormitories also boast private karaoke rooms, an English garden with pink roses and a swimming pool.
“This was the only university to recruit us by offering a hot spring,” Mr. Iwanaga, 21, said. “They really wanted us to come here.”
Japan has one of the oldest and most established systems of higher education in Asia, but today its universities are scrambling to find new ways to attract students. Years of falling birthrates have rapidly shrunk the population of young Japanese, leaving more universities unable to find enough students to fill their classrooms and campuses.
The rapid graying of Japan’s population has already been felt in other parts of society, including the lower rungs of the nation’s education system where hundreds of half-empty elementary and high schools have closed or been merged over the last two decades. But it has only recently begun to affect higher education.
Japan’s postwar baby boom started earlier than America’s. As a result, according to census statistics, the number of 18-year-olds in Japan peaked at 2.05 million in 1992, when the baby boomers’ children were entering universities, and has fallen steadily, to 1.3 million this year. Estimates show it dropping to 1.21 million in two years. This year, as a result, nearly a third of the nation’s 707 public and private four-year universities cannot fill all of their openings, according to the Education Ministry and university groups. Roughly half of college-age Japanese attend universities.
Only three universities have gone bankrupt for lack of students. Three years ago, Hiroshima’s Risshikan University became the first Japanese university to fail since World War II. But the Education Ministry and university groups are busily writing guidelines to help them deal with a retrenchment that few developed nations have had to face.
“We are entering an era of survival of the fittest,” said Yasuhiko Nishii, an official at the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, the national association of private schools, including universities. “We need to find ways to let weaker universities close without disrupting the education of their students.”
Many universities have responded by hunting for new pools of prospective students, like foreigners and “silver students,” retirees who study for fun. In March, Osaka University gave a doctorate in mathematics to a 71-year-old former engineer who entered graduate school after retiring.
At Fukuoka University of Economics, near this city on Kyushu, a southern island, administrators responded to the plunge in applications with a $50 million project in 1999 to build lavish dormitories, in which all 700 rooms are singles — a luxury on Japan’s traditionally spartan campuses — and are wired for the Internet.
The university has also halved tuition to 590,000 yen, or about $5,000. The school also created a “celebrity business” major to train professional entertainers, after administrators saw a survey showing many young Japanese now aspiring to creative pursuits like music, rather than the “salaryman” positions sought by their parents’ generation.
The prospect of universities fighting to win students has prompted national hand-wringing about the future of Japanese higher education. Since the founding in 1877 of the nation’s first modern university, the University of Tokyo, Japanese universities and their grueling entrance exams have been the society’s main mechanism for sorting its youth, tracking the brightest into top business and government jobs. Many fear that this mechanism could be impaired if universities lower standards to attract more students.
But in a country where higher education has long been viewed as a four-year break before entering the work force, some administrators welcome the competition, saying it will force schools to improve the quality of instruction — or perish. Atsushi Hamana, president of Kansai University of International Studies in Miki, Japan, says that schools are realizing that young people actually want to study to get the skills to compete in a globalizing economy.
The dorm also has private karaoke rooms where Akiyo Yamaguchi, left, sang for her friends Mai Ueda and Yomoko Kidera.
“It’s ironic, but it took this crisis to make universities realize they actually have to educate their students,” Mr. Hamana said.
Another promising change has been an opening of Japan’s doors to more foreign students, whose numbers have increased in recent years, but are still far fewer than in America. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, founded in 2000 in Beppu, a southern city, could be the shape of things to come in Japan. Almost half its 5,421 students are from overseas, mainly China and South Korea. About 42 percent of the 128 faculty members are also foreign, including the president, who is from Sri Lanka.
Half of the classes are taught in English. The university is also unusual in Japan because it has a full-fledged, American-style career office to help students find jobs. The university has been rapidly expanding, and its international environment and solid academic program have proved a draw for young Japanese: Last year, 3,753 applied for about 750 spots.
What Japanese universities are desperate to avoid is a fate like that of Hagi International University, one of the three universities to fail because of too few students.
Hagi converted from a two-year junior college to a four-year university in 1999 with grandiose plans of becoming the region’s top school. But from the start, it failed to attract its annual capacity of 300 freshmen. The campus became increasingly empty as new enrollees dropped from about 200 the first year to just three in 2006, the university said.
Hagi first tried to fill its thinning ranks by recruiting in China, but the immigration authorities stopped that in 2002 after 26 Chinese students disappeared, apparently to work illegally in Japan, the university said. Next, it hired a top professional golfer and offered Japan’s first major in golf culture, but that drew only about 30 students.
Deep in the red, Hagi International sought court protection for bankruptcy in 2005.
“We tried to find ways to attract new students,” said Masanori Hatachi, the president of the university, which now has a new owner and a new name, Yamaguchi University of Human Welfare and Culture. “Problem was, there just weren’t a lot of new students to be found.”
After bankruptcy, the university was taken over by a construction company and revived in April as a smaller university offering degrees in the health field. Mr. Hatachi said the new focus should make it more competitive because in rapidly graying Japan, care for the elderly was one of the few guaranteed growth markets for young job seekers.
“It’s not enough anymore to offer a traditional education,” he said. “A university has to be a place where students think they can learn what they need.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/world/asia/22universities.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
A single room at a new dormitory at Fukuoka University of Economics, where Makoto Higuchi, right, visited Kenji Kubo.
Fukuoka University, near Dazaifu, uses a new dorm as a draw.
It was the hot spring in the dormitories.
Perched immodestly on the edge of a steaming bath, a dozen judo teammates soaking happily near him, the junior in economics said he picked this university when he saw the spa pictured in a brochure. The university’s resortlike new dormitories also boast private karaoke rooms, an English garden with pink roses and a swimming pool.
“This was the only university to recruit us by offering a hot spring,” Mr. Iwanaga, 21, said. “They really wanted us to come here.”
Japan has one of the oldest and most established systems of higher education in Asia, but today its universities are scrambling to find new ways to attract students. Years of falling birthrates have rapidly shrunk the population of young Japanese, leaving more universities unable to find enough students to fill their classrooms and campuses.
The rapid graying of Japan’s population has already been felt in other parts of society, including the lower rungs of the nation’s education system where hundreds of half-empty elementary and high schools have closed or been merged over the last two decades. But it has only recently begun to affect higher education.
Japan’s postwar baby boom started earlier than America’s. As a result, according to census statistics, the number of 18-year-olds in Japan peaked at 2.05 million in 1992, when the baby boomers’ children were entering universities, and has fallen steadily, to 1.3 million this year. Estimates show it dropping to 1.21 million in two years. This year, as a result, nearly a third of the nation’s 707 public and private four-year universities cannot fill all of their openings, according to the Education Ministry and university groups. Roughly half of college-age Japanese attend universities.
Only three universities have gone bankrupt for lack of students. Three years ago, Hiroshima’s Risshikan University became the first Japanese university to fail since World War II. But the Education Ministry and university groups are busily writing guidelines to help them deal with a retrenchment that few developed nations have had to face.
“We are entering an era of survival of the fittest,” said Yasuhiko Nishii, an official at the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, the national association of private schools, including universities. “We need to find ways to let weaker universities close without disrupting the education of their students.”
Many universities have responded by hunting for new pools of prospective students, like foreigners and “silver students,” retirees who study for fun. In March, Osaka University gave a doctorate in mathematics to a 71-year-old former engineer who entered graduate school after retiring.
At Fukuoka University of Economics, near this city on Kyushu, a southern island, administrators responded to the plunge in applications with a $50 million project in 1999 to build lavish dormitories, in which all 700 rooms are singles — a luxury on Japan’s traditionally spartan campuses — and are wired for the Internet.
The university has also halved tuition to 590,000 yen, or about $5,000. The school also created a “celebrity business” major to train professional entertainers, after administrators saw a survey showing many young Japanese now aspiring to creative pursuits like music, rather than the “salaryman” positions sought by their parents’ generation.
The prospect of universities fighting to win students has prompted national hand-wringing about the future of Japanese higher education. Since the founding in 1877 of the nation’s first modern university, the University of Tokyo, Japanese universities and their grueling entrance exams have been the society’s main mechanism for sorting its youth, tracking the brightest into top business and government jobs. Many fear that this mechanism could be impaired if universities lower standards to attract more students.
But in a country where higher education has long been viewed as a four-year break before entering the work force, some administrators welcome the competition, saying it will force schools to improve the quality of instruction — or perish. Atsushi Hamana, president of Kansai University of International Studies in Miki, Japan, says that schools are realizing that young people actually want to study to get the skills to compete in a globalizing economy.
The dorm also has private karaoke rooms where Akiyo Yamaguchi, left, sang for her friends Mai Ueda and Yomoko Kidera.
“It’s ironic, but it took this crisis to make universities realize they actually have to educate their students,” Mr. Hamana said.
Another promising change has been an opening of Japan’s doors to more foreign students, whose numbers have increased in recent years, but are still far fewer than in America. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, founded in 2000 in Beppu, a southern city, could be the shape of things to come in Japan. Almost half its 5,421 students are from overseas, mainly China and South Korea. About 42 percent of the 128 faculty members are also foreign, including the president, who is from Sri Lanka.
Half of the classes are taught in English. The university is also unusual in Japan because it has a full-fledged, American-style career office to help students find jobs. The university has been rapidly expanding, and its international environment and solid academic program have proved a draw for young Japanese: Last year, 3,753 applied for about 750 spots.
What Japanese universities are desperate to avoid is a fate like that of Hagi International University, one of the three universities to fail because of too few students.
Hagi converted from a two-year junior college to a four-year university in 1999 with grandiose plans of becoming the region’s top school. But from the start, it failed to attract its annual capacity of 300 freshmen. The campus became increasingly empty as new enrollees dropped from about 200 the first year to just three in 2006, the university said.
Hagi first tried to fill its thinning ranks by recruiting in China, but the immigration authorities stopped that in 2002 after 26 Chinese students disappeared, apparently to work illegally in Japan, the university said. Next, it hired a top professional golfer and offered Japan’s first major in golf culture, but that drew only about 30 students.
Deep in the red, Hagi International sought court protection for bankruptcy in 2005.
“We tried to find ways to attract new students,” said Masanori Hatachi, the president of the university, which now has a new owner and a new name, Yamaguchi University of Human Welfare and Culture. “Problem was, there just weren’t a lot of new students to be found.”
After bankruptcy, the university was taken over by a construction company and revived in April as a smaller university offering degrees in the health field. Mr. Hatachi said the new focus should make it more competitive because in rapidly graying Japan, care for the elderly was one of the few guaranteed growth markets for young job seekers.
“It’s not enough anymore to offer a traditional education,” he said. “A university has to be a place where students think they can learn what they need.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/world/asia/22universities.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Boost Japan via language schools overseas: Abe panel
An advisory panel to Foreign Minister Taro Aso proposed Wednesday that Japanese-language schools be set up in more than 100 locations worldwide within two to three years to boost Japan's global profile.
The move is part of a set of proposals presented by the Overseas Exchange Council to raise worldwide interest in Japanese language and culture in the wake of a growing Chinese language boom.
The 17-member council is led by Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho and tasked with seeking ways to market Japan to the world.
The panel said, in a report listing the proposals, it is concerned that "countries' interest in Japan is declining against the backdrop of China's rapid growth in recent years."
In 1990, about 980,000 people were studying Japanese as a foreign language around the world, but in 2003, the number had risen to some 2.35 million, a Japan Foundation poll found.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20070621f4.html
The move is part of a set of proposals presented by the Overseas Exchange Council to raise worldwide interest in Japanese language and culture in the wake of a growing Chinese language boom.
The 17-member council is led by Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Fujio Cho and tasked with seeking ways to market Japan to the world.
The panel said, in a report listing the proposals, it is concerned that "countries' interest in Japan is declining against the backdrop of China's rapid growth in recent years."
In 1990, about 980,000 people were studying Japanese as a foreign language around the world, but in 2003, the number had risen to some 2.35 million, a Japan Foundation poll found.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20070621f4.html
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
2 state-run universities in Osaka to be integrated Oct. 1
The integration of Osaka University and Osaka University of Foreign Studies was formally approved at the Diet on Tuesday.
The two state-run universities will be integrated Oct. 1 under the name of Osaka University.
The enrollment limit for incoming freshmen following the integration will stand at 3,245, exceeding that of the University of Tokyo to become the largest among Japan's state-run colleges.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070612/kyodo/d8pn1puo1.html
The two state-run universities will be integrated Oct. 1 under the name of Osaka University.
The enrollment limit for incoming freshmen following the integration will stand at 3,245, exceeding that of the University of Tokyo to become the largest among Japan's state-run colleges.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070612/kyodo/d8pn1puo1.html
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
College admissions revamped / But system criticized for accepting students before summer vacation
More universities are recruiting students ahead of the traditional entrance exam season, and some applicants have received acceptance notices before the summer vacation.
This has been made possible by a relatively new admission system of screening students with interviews and essays instead of written exams, known as the AO (admission office) exam.
The AO exams are distinguished from general written exams and early exams for selected students recommended by high school principals. While those exams are scheduled under the Education, Science and Technology Ministry guideline, AO exams are not bound to a fixed schedule.
Under the screening-based admission, universities examine applicants' character and motivation, among other things. For the 2006 academic year, 45 national and other public universities and 380 private universities--or 70 percent of all private universities--held such screenings, with about 35,400 students, or 6 percent of the total, entering universities through the process.
Behind the move is the declining number of students along with the falling birthrate, causing competition to secure new students to intensify. Some schools are having trouble attracting enough applicants to fill the available places.
A small university in the Tokyo metropolitan area started accepting applications this month and will offer places to students before the end of the month. An official said: "We want to accept high school students who pick our university as first choice at the earliest possible time. This admission system works for students who want to decide where they'll go as soon as possible and for universities that want to secure new students."
According to preparatory school sour-ces, universities often announce the results of the screening in autumn, around when they start accepting applications from recommended students. But in the past couple of years, more and more universities have brought the schedule forward, starting the screening process and/or informing applicants of the screening result before the summer vacation.
According to universities' admission guides for the next academic year, at least seven schools will unofficially inform students this month that they passed the screening and would be accepted, and 15 schools would do so in July. Nearly 30 other schools plan to start the screening process this month and next.
Critics say the scheme is an aotagai (green harvest), referring to the enclosure of students considerably ahead of the appropriate time.
A 49-year-old teacher in Tokyo said, "If students are admitted at such an early time, they won't study in class after the summer vacation."
Kenichi Otsuka, an official at educational publisher Obunsha Co., said universities that struggle to attract students, such as women's universities and provincial schools, tend to bring forward the schedule. "Some universities hold their own elaborate screenings, but others hold interviews and let applicants submit essays as a formality," he said.
Vocational schools, which also suffer declining number of students, will start screening-based admissions as well. The association of Tokyo vocational schools plans to start screening on July 1. A school in Hyogo Prefecture also will introduce the scheme for the next academic year.
(Jun. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070612TDY02006.htm
This has been made possible by a relatively new admission system of screening students with interviews and essays instead of written exams, known as the AO (admission office) exam.
The AO exams are distinguished from general written exams and early exams for selected students recommended by high school principals. While those exams are scheduled under the Education, Science and Technology Ministry guideline, AO exams are not bound to a fixed schedule.
Under the screening-based admission, universities examine applicants' character and motivation, among other things. For the 2006 academic year, 45 national and other public universities and 380 private universities--or 70 percent of all private universities--held such screenings, with about 35,400 students, or 6 percent of the total, entering universities through the process.
Behind the move is the declining number of students along with the falling birthrate, causing competition to secure new students to intensify. Some schools are having trouble attracting enough applicants to fill the available places.
A small university in the Tokyo metropolitan area started accepting applications this month and will offer places to students before the end of the month. An official said: "We want to accept high school students who pick our university as first choice at the earliest possible time. This admission system works for students who want to decide where they'll go as soon as possible and for universities that want to secure new students."
According to preparatory school sour-ces, universities often announce the results of the screening in autumn, around when they start accepting applications from recommended students. But in the past couple of years, more and more universities have brought the schedule forward, starting the screening process and/or informing applicants of the screening result before the summer vacation.
According to universities' admission guides for the next academic year, at least seven schools will unofficially inform students this month that they passed the screening and would be accepted, and 15 schools would do so in July. Nearly 30 other schools plan to start the screening process this month and next.
Critics say the scheme is an aotagai (green harvest), referring to the enclosure of students considerably ahead of the appropriate time.
A 49-year-old teacher in Tokyo said, "If students are admitted at such an early time, they won't study in class after the summer vacation."
Kenichi Otsuka, an official at educational publisher Obunsha Co., said universities that struggle to attract students, such as women's universities and provincial schools, tend to bring forward the schedule. "Some universities hold their own elaborate screenings, but others hold interviews and let applicants submit essays as a formality," he said.
Vocational schools, which also suffer declining number of students, will start screening-based admissions as well. The association of Tokyo vocational schools plans to start screening on July 1. A school in Hyogo Prefecture also will introduce the scheme for the next academic year.
(Jun. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070612TDY02006.htm
Monday, June 11, 2007
Japan youths teach adults about PCs
Tokyo (dpa) - Tech-savvy Japanese high school students are becoming popular computer instructors among Tokyo's middle-aged and elderly computer users.
A five-day computer course offered three times a year has received more than 100 applicants for 20 seats because the instruction is made easier to understand for the aged first-time users, according to a local government, which sponsors the project.
Some 13 students who are members of a media science club decided to share their knowledge of computers by collaborating with the local government and by offering the course to the general public, mainly adults.
They set out to make manoeuvring the technology much easier than the available manuals by writing textbooks with larger fonts, changing tech jargon like "click" into "press a mouse once," the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said.
Even the term "to drag" a mouse can be a foreign language and a headache to those who are new to the technology.
During the course, the participants learn everything from how to turn on the computer and manipulate the mouse to how to use word- processing software and conduct research on the internet.
The students-turned-instructors try to solve the difficulties pointed out by the participants after every course, the newspaper said. "I feel rewarded for teaching the course when I see senior participants finding web pages they like to read. They were afraid to touch it earlier for fear they might break it," Taiji Matsunaga, one of the students, was quoted as saying.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119345
A five-day computer course offered three times a year has received more than 100 applicants for 20 seats because the instruction is made easier to understand for the aged first-time users, according to a local government, which sponsors the project.
Some 13 students who are members of a media science club decided to share their knowledge of computers by collaborating with the local government and by offering the course to the general public, mainly adults.
They set out to make manoeuvring the technology much easier than the available manuals by writing textbooks with larger fonts, changing tech jargon like "click" into "press a mouse once," the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said.
Even the term "to drag" a mouse can be a foreign language and a headache to those who are new to the technology.
During the course, the participants learn everything from how to turn on the computer and manipulate the mouse to how to use word- processing software and conduct research on the internet.
The students-turned-instructors try to solve the difficulties pointed out by the participants after every course, the newspaper said. "I feel rewarded for teaching the course when I see senior participants finding web pages they like to read. They were afraid to touch it earlier for fear they might break it," Taiji Matsunaga, one of the students, was quoted as saying.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119345
Students: Take this job and shove it
Each year, Japan's major corporations recruit university students through a system known as naitei, which ensures that the best and the brightest already have jobs lined up well in advance of their graduation.
After the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, however, corporate hiring entered a decade-long decline, during which new graduates outnumbered positions available. But with the recovery of the Japanese economy and imminent retirement of large numbers of baby boomers, hiring has picked up, and students, benefiting from a seller's market, have begun turning down prearranged jobs left and right.
These "naitei resignations," reports Flash, have risen to a staggering 68.6 percent in the consumer credit and leasing sector. And even prestigious firms such as banks and securities brokerages are aghast to be getting the boot from about half their new recruits.
One reason, according to Tokyo-based job consulting and recruitment firm Gusiness K.K., is that over half the students it surveyed conclude naitei agreements with more than one company; 15 percent said they signed up with three or more.
In its own survey of 800 such students, the magazine found that rather than such factors as salary, company reputation or fringe benefits, the reasons for turning down the jobs included "company lacks a good future," with 14.8 percent and "job appears boring" with 14.6 percent.
Even more bizarre, perhaps, was the response cited by 7.8 percent of the students who felt the company's interviewer "made a poor impression." Talk about the shoe being on the other foot . . .
"Starting with the reception, the company left me unimpressed," sniffs one, a senior at Hokkaido University, about his decision not to join a member of the NTT Group. "I felt pessimistic about its future."
Be as it may, this surge of refusals is playing havoc with personnel managers.
"If more than half of the new recruits turn down job offers, personnel managers are put on the spot," remarks Norifumi Mizogami, a journalist who covers employment issues. "So they have no choice but to put their own personal feelings aside and fervently try to sign them up."
To win over the new recruits' hearts and minds, some companies have resorted to innovative tactics.
"Before the second-stage interview, one manufacturer of construction materials has arranged for a 'reverse interview,' " says Mizogami. "The prospective recruits go out drinking and discuss the company one-on-one with 'old boys,' (i.e. veteran workers). If the students like what they hear, then they proceed to the second interview."
Other firms, however, don't appear the least bit inclined to change their ways just to coddle these young whippersnappers.
"We're not interested in kids who think they can start raking in 10 million yen a year while still in their 20s," a personnel manager at a major trading house tells Flash. "We'll make them serve a 10-year apprenticeship doing menial tasks. This is how we nurture a shosha-man (trading-company employee), and we've no intention of changing how we do things."
A personnel manager at a financial institution, meanwhile, lamented the declining quality of the young people he's expected to recruit.
"These kids leave a lot to be desired in terms of their ethics, morality and sense of public duty," he complains. "Unless they're interested in something, they have no desire to do it."
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20070610t3.html
After the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, however, corporate hiring entered a decade-long decline, during which new graduates outnumbered positions available. But with the recovery of the Japanese economy and imminent retirement of large numbers of baby boomers, hiring has picked up, and students, benefiting from a seller's market, have begun turning down prearranged jobs left and right.
These "naitei resignations," reports Flash, have risen to a staggering 68.6 percent in the consumer credit and leasing sector. And even prestigious firms such as banks and securities brokerages are aghast to be getting the boot from about half their new recruits.
One reason, according to Tokyo-based job consulting and recruitment firm Gusiness K.K., is that over half the students it surveyed conclude naitei agreements with more than one company; 15 percent said they signed up with three or more.
In its own survey of 800 such students, the magazine found that rather than such factors as salary, company reputation or fringe benefits, the reasons for turning down the jobs included "company lacks a good future," with 14.8 percent and "job appears boring" with 14.6 percent.
Even more bizarre, perhaps, was the response cited by 7.8 percent of the students who felt the company's interviewer "made a poor impression." Talk about the shoe being on the other foot . . .
"Starting with the reception, the company left me unimpressed," sniffs one, a senior at Hokkaido University, about his decision not to join a member of the NTT Group. "I felt pessimistic about its future."
Be as it may, this surge of refusals is playing havoc with personnel managers.
"If more than half of the new recruits turn down job offers, personnel managers are put on the spot," remarks Norifumi Mizogami, a journalist who covers employment issues. "So they have no choice but to put their own personal feelings aside and fervently try to sign them up."
To win over the new recruits' hearts and minds, some companies have resorted to innovative tactics.
"Before the second-stage interview, one manufacturer of construction materials has arranged for a 'reverse interview,' " says Mizogami. "The prospective recruits go out drinking and discuss the company one-on-one with 'old boys,' (i.e. veteran workers). If the students like what they hear, then they proceed to the second interview."
Other firms, however, don't appear the least bit inclined to change their ways just to coddle these young whippersnappers.
"We're not interested in kids who think they can start raking in 10 million yen a year while still in their 20s," a personnel manager at a major trading house tells Flash. "We'll make them serve a 10-year apprenticeship doing menial tasks. This is how we nurture a shosha-man (trading-company employee), and we've no intention of changing how we do things."
A personnel manager at a financial institution, meanwhile, lamented the declining quality of the young people he's expected to recruit.
"These kids leave a lot to be desired in terms of their ethics, morality and sense of public duty," he complains. "Unless they're interested in something, they have no desire to do it."
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20070610t3.html
Borderless Korean school to open in Osaka Pref.
OSAKA--A Korean international school offering a curriculum based neither on race nor nationality that will encourage its students to take active roles in Asia will be set up in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, in April.
The school was planned by a group of mainly ethnic Korean residents and its curriculum will include Korean-, Japanese- and English-language classes and history classes that are not biased toward North Korea or South Korea.
The number of ethnic Koreans naturalized in Japan is increasing. Only 10 percent of children in the ethnic Korean community attend schools that are specifically North Korean or South Korean, while most of the others go to Japanese schools.
A group of second- and third-generation ethnic Koreans set up a preparatory committee to establish a school where they could educate their children regardless of their nationality. Among the about 120 people who support the school is Kang Sang Jung, a professor of Tokyo University's graduate school.
A nonprofit organization will take charge of the clerical management and construction of the school in the Toyokawa district of the city. An educational corporation will be set up after the school opens.
The school will provide a six-year program of unified education for middle and high schools, with 70 students per grade. The students will have 39 hours of course work a week conducted mainly in Korean, and learn English for two hours a day from instructors dispatched by a major language school.
The school will create an original history textbook from an ethnic Korean point of view to teach the modern history of the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Si Jong, 78, a poet who will serve as the school's director, said, "Changes among ethnic Koreans have made us reconsider the meaning and prospects of living in Japan as well as how we live in northeast Asia."
(Jun. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070610TDY03001.htm
The school was planned by a group of mainly ethnic Korean residents and its curriculum will include Korean-, Japanese- and English-language classes and history classes that are not biased toward North Korea or South Korea.
The number of ethnic Koreans naturalized in Japan is increasing. Only 10 percent of children in the ethnic Korean community attend schools that are specifically North Korean or South Korean, while most of the others go to Japanese schools.
A group of second- and third-generation ethnic Koreans set up a preparatory committee to establish a school where they could educate their children regardless of their nationality. Among the about 120 people who support the school is Kang Sang Jung, a professor of Tokyo University's graduate school.
A nonprofit organization will take charge of the clerical management and construction of the school in the Toyokawa district of the city. An educational corporation will be set up after the school opens.
The school will provide a six-year program of unified education for middle and high schools, with 70 students per grade. The students will have 39 hours of course work a week conducted mainly in Korean, and learn English for two hours a day from instructors dispatched by a major language school.
The school will create an original history textbook from an ethnic Korean point of view to teach the modern history of the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Si Jong, 78, a poet who will serve as the school's director, said, "Changes among ethnic Koreans have made us reconsider the meaning and prospects of living in Japan as well as how we live in northeast Asia."
(Jun. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070610TDY03001.htm
Education: Alma maters fight to survive, woo students
At a time when the number of undergraduate applicants matches openings at most universities--meaning almost anyone can go to college--many institutions may close their doors due to a lack of students.
While the college-age population is dropping along with the falling birthrate, the number of universities has surged as many two-year colleges have turned into more popular four-year institutions.
To survive, some schools are merging, but many others can only wait in fear for the day when they will be forced to shut down.
That sad scenario became a reality for privately-run Tohwa University in Fukuoka, which opened in 1967 with only an engineering department. It did not hold an entrance ceremony this April, a time when new students enter universities and colleges nationwide.
Last August, it announced that prospective students need not apply in and after fiscal 2007.
The institution fell into the red in fiscal 2005 and the number of applicants failed to reach the enrollment quota in fiscal 2006.
In December, it was decided that the university would close at the end of fiscal 2009 when all current students graduate, according to university operators.
A 22-year-old man who graduated in March said he learned about the plan via the Internet. Later, he received a brief note about the decision during class.
He watched as instructors were fired one by one. His professor was soon gone, too, leaving him and fellow students who had studied under the professor in a fix, not even knowing how to operate lab equipment for their studies.
School management said it tried in vain to revitalize the institution.
So far, 21 instructors, about half, have been let go. Thirteen are suing the university to have their dismissals nullified, contending management has sufficient operating funds.
"The university, in a way, functions as an institution for the re-education of graduates. So, without their alma mater, graduates will probably feel that support is gone," said a 53-year-old professor who was fired last October.
Universities that try to rebuild often find there are no easy answers.
Hagi International University, which opened in 1999 in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, suffered from the start because of its bad location. In its first year, only 70 percent of the 300 student quota in the international communication department--the only one offered--was filled.
In the 2005 school year, only 42 students enrolled. The institution filed for bankruptcy that June.
With financial help from the Hiroshima-based Shiomi Holdings Corp., the institution marked a fresh start this April as Yamaguchi University of Human Welfare and Culture.
But only 24 enrolled, far below its quota of 140.
To increase enrollment, the university, which trains students to be social-welfare professionals and nursery school teachers, offers lectures given by top experts in Tokyo via video linkup. The university is also trying to woo local senior high school graduates.
A teacher at a nearby school that sent three graduates to the university said the institution's effort to encourage students to obtain qualifications is an advantage for those hoping to go to college.
Parents, watching their pocketbooks, prefer to send their children to a university close to home as long as the institution offers job-related qualifications.
An index often used to judge a university's financial health measures the difference between income and expenditures against total income. According to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, the ratio stood at zero or below in fiscal 2005 at 138 of 504 entities operating private universities. However, in fiscal 2000, the ratio stood at zero or below at only 69 of 435 entities.
"The action needed, in addition to streamlining university operations, is to make sure students enroll at all costs," stressed Yasuhiko Nishii, who is in charge of advising private university management at the corporation.
Naoto Shimoyama, a senior analyst at Rating and Investment Information Inc., said 70-80 percent of income at private universities comes from tuition and enrollment fees and that the main factor in rating universities is their skill at attracting students.
And with the number of 18-year-olds set to decline in the coming decade, the fight for survival among universities will only grow more fierce.(IHT/Asahi: June 9,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706090056.html
While the college-age population is dropping along with the falling birthrate, the number of universities has surged as many two-year colleges have turned into more popular four-year institutions.
To survive, some schools are merging, but many others can only wait in fear for the day when they will be forced to shut down.
That sad scenario became a reality for privately-run Tohwa University in Fukuoka, which opened in 1967 with only an engineering department. It did not hold an entrance ceremony this April, a time when new students enter universities and colleges nationwide.
Last August, it announced that prospective students need not apply in and after fiscal 2007.
The institution fell into the red in fiscal 2005 and the number of applicants failed to reach the enrollment quota in fiscal 2006.
In December, it was decided that the university would close at the end of fiscal 2009 when all current students graduate, according to university operators.
A 22-year-old man who graduated in March said he learned about the plan via the Internet. Later, he received a brief note about the decision during class.
He watched as instructors were fired one by one. His professor was soon gone, too, leaving him and fellow students who had studied under the professor in a fix, not even knowing how to operate lab equipment for their studies.
School management said it tried in vain to revitalize the institution.
So far, 21 instructors, about half, have been let go. Thirteen are suing the university to have their dismissals nullified, contending management has sufficient operating funds.
"The university, in a way, functions as an institution for the re-education of graduates. So, without their alma mater, graduates will probably feel that support is gone," said a 53-year-old professor who was fired last October.
Universities that try to rebuild often find there are no easy answers.
Hagi International University, which opened in 1999 in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, suffered from the start because of its bad location. In its first year, only 70 percent of the 300 student quota in the international communication department--the only one offered--was filled.
In the 2005 school year, only 42 students enrolled. The institution filed for bankruptcy that June.
With financial help from the Hiroshima-based Shiomi Holdings Corp., the institution marked a fresh start this April as Yamaguchi University of Human Welfare and Culture.
But only 24 enrolled, far below its quota of 140.
To increase enrollment, the university, which trains students to be social-welfare professionals and nursery school teachers, offers lectures given by top experts in Tokyo via video linkup. The university is also trying to woo local senior high school graduates.
A teacher at a nearby school that sent three graduates to the university said the institution's effort to encourage students to obtain qualifications is an advantage for those hoping to go to college.
Parents, watching their pocketbooks, prefer to send their children to a university close to home as long as the institution offers job-related qualifications.
An index often used to judge a university's financial health measures the difference between income and expenditures against total income. According to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, the ratio stood at zero or below in fiscal 2005 at 138 of 504 entities operating private universities. However, in fiscal 2000, the ratio stood at zero or below at only 69 of 435 entities.
"The action needed, in addition to streamlining university operations, is to make sure students enroll at all costs," stressed Yasuhiko Nishii, who is in charge of advising private university management at the corporation.
Naoto Shimoyama, a senior analyst at Rating and Investment Information Inc., said 70-80 percent of income at private universities comes from tuition and enrollment fees and that the main factor in rating universities is their skill at attracting students.
And with the number of 18-year-olds set to decline in the coming decade, the fight for survival among universities will only grow more fierce.(IHT/Asahi: June 9,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706090056.html
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
More foreign schools are coming to Osaka
While the traditional tourist spots of Japan and the cityscape of Tokyo are becoming bigger drawing cards for foreign tourists, Osaka is proving to be a popular destination for visitors of a different kind--students.
In fiscal 2006, a record number of students on school trips made their way to Osaka Prefecture. According to the Tourism Promotion Division of the Osaka prefectural government, more than 8,000 foreign students streamed into Osaka. The region was especially popular with Chinese students, with the number of such visitors rising four-fold in just a year.
For Japanese schools, it means their students get a chance to interact more with their peers from across the seas.
But many local schools feel they are on shaky ground when it comes to playing host to a bunch of international visitors.
To ease those concerns, the prefectural government is putting out a guidebook this month that gives suggestions and sample ideas to facilitate interchange programs. The idea is to motivate more schools to sign up as host schools. The government's goal is for local schools to host 10,000 overseas students in fiscal 2007.
It is a far cry from the 2004 school year, when only about 120 overseas students visited Osaka on school trips. The following year, the Osaka prefectural government began making earnest efforts to attract more visitors. That year, visitor numbers surged to 3,799 before hitting 8,041 in fiscal 2006.
According to a breakdown by nation and region, in fiscal 2006, 4,024 students, or roughly 50 percent of the total, came from South Korea; 3,291, or 41 percent, from China; followed by 536, or 7 percent, from Taiwan.
Visas for Chinese students on school visits were waived in fiscal 2004--which contributed to the increase.
China's continued strong economic growth is also another factor.
Most of the visiting student groups requested some kind of exchange with local Japanese schools. The Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau has been in charge of fielding such requests and inquiries. In fiscal 2006, 12 elementary schools, 50 junior high schools and 73 senior high schools in Osaka Prefecture participated in international exchange programs.
The Osaka prefectural government noted there was a rush of last-minute requests for exchange visits. Some schools give less than one month's notice before their arrival. In some cases, there was insufficient time to schedule an interchange experience.
On occasion, teachers at local schools find themselves fretting about hosting foreign visitors because they feel inexperienced and are unsure of what is expected of them.
In an effort to bolster the number of recipient schools, the Osaka government appointed a former senior high school principal to serve as a school visit interchange coordinator at the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau for fiscal 2006. It appointed a former junior high school principal for fiscal 2007.
In March, the prefectural government distributed reference material outlining interchange program activities to its public elementary and junior high schools.
A guidebook further promoting the program is now being prepared for distribution later this month. The booklet is designed to facilitate preparations for the host school.
It will show the flow of preparation and activities from step one, when a bus-load of visiting students arrives at the school gates, right to the moment when they bid farewell. The guidebook will also list examples of actual exchanges.
(IHT/Asahi: June 5,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706050065.html
In fiscal 2006, a record number of students on school trips made their way to Osaka Prefecture. According to the Tourism Promotion Division of the Osaka prefectural government, more than 8,000 foreign students streamed into Osaka. The region was especially popular with Chinese students, with the number of such visitors rising four-fold in just a year.
For Japanese schools, it means their students get a chance to interact more with their peers from across the seas.
But many local schools feel they are on shaky ground when it comes to playing host to a bunch of international visitors.
To ease those concerns, the prefectural government is putting out a guidebook this month that gives suggestions and sample ideas to facilitate interchange programs. The idea is to motivate more schools to sign up as host schools. The government's goal is for local schools to host 10,000 overseas students in fiscal 2007.
It is a far cry from the 2004 school year, when only about 120 overseas students visited Osaka on school trips. The following year, the Osaka prefectural government began making earnest efforts to attract more visitors. That year, visitor numbers surged to 3,799 before hitting 8,041 in fiscal 2006.
According to a breakdown by nation and region, in fiscal 2006, 4,024 students, or roughly 50 percent of the total, came from South Korea; 3,291, or 41 percent, from China; followed by 536, or 7 percent, from Taiwan.
Visas for Chinese students on school visits were waived in fiscal 2004--which contributed to the increase.
China's continued strong economic growth is also another factor.
Most of the visiting student groups requested some kind of exchange with local Japanese schools. The Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau has been in charge of fielding such requests and inquiries. In fiscal 2006, 12 elementary schools, 50 junior high schools and 73 senior high schools in Osaka Prefecture participated in international exchange programs.
The Osaka prefectural government noted there was a rush of last-minute requests for exchange visits. Some schools give less than one month's notice before their arrival. In some cases, there was insufficient time to schedule an interchange experience.
On occasion, teachers at local schools find themselves fretting about hosting foreign visitors because they feel inexperienced and are unsure of what is expected of them.
In an effort to bolster the number of recipient schools, the Osaka government appointed a former senior high school principal to serve as a school visit interchange coordinator at the Osaka Convention and Tourism Bureau for fiscal 2006. It appointed a former junior high school principal for fiscal 2007.
In March, the prefectural government distributed reference material outlining interchange program activities to its public elementary and junior high schools.
A guidebook further promoting the program is now being prepared for distribution later this month. The booklet is designed to facilitate preparations for the host school.
It will show the flow of preparation and activities from step one, when a bus-load of visiting students arrives at the school gates, right to the moment when they bid farewell. The guidebook will also list examples of actual exchanges.
(IHT/Asahi: June 5,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706050065.html
Monday, June 04, 2007
More effort needed to attract foreign students
To entice more top-notch students from abroad, we need to make learning in Japan more attractive to foreign students.
The government's Asian Gateway plan includes a goal of tripling the number of foreign students enrolled at universities and other educational institutions in Japan--currently standing at 120,000--by the end of 2025.
The Education Rebuilding Council, for its part, proposed in its second report that Japan draft a new policy on foreign students that furthers national strategies, including industrial and diplomatic policies.
In the course of the council's discussions, some called for setting a target of accepting 1 million foreign students.
Japan's standing in the international community would be boosted if it could nurture an affinity for Japanese culture among excellent human resources from abroad.
At a time when human resources are increasingly moving across national borders, hiring capable foreign workers who have studied in this country would certainly give Japanese companies a competitive edge.
When the government came up with a plan in 1983 to accept 100,000 foreign students, students from abroad numbered a meager 10,000. After having reached this target, the emphasis should now shift from increasing the quantity of students to attracting top-quality students.
===
International scholars
The United States and European nations are fighting for the lion's share of excellent foreign students. The number of people studying abroad has drastically increased globally, especially in terms of students from Asia. One estimate puts it that their numbers will roughly triple by the end of 2025.
Students from China and South Korea account for 80 percent of the foreign students in Japan, but the fact remains that many top-notch students from these countries are studying in the United States.
How can Japan catch up with the United States as a magnet for excellent foreign students?
Under the Asian Gateway plan, Japan will aim to maintain at least its current share of foreign students, or about 5 percent of foreign students in the world, while also ensuring foreign students coming to Japan are of high quality.
In order to attract highly qualified human resources, the nation must have an education system that is based on high standards and cutting-edge research. It is also necessary to expand the scope of classes taught in English.
===
Boost appeal
One thing that diminishes the attractiveness of Japan as a destination for studying is reluctance on the part of Japanese companies to hire foreigners, citing language problems and differences in customs.
In some cases, students keen to study in Japan sent letters of inquiry to professors, but had to abandon their plans because their letters went unanswered.
Britain has offices responsible for helping students wishing to study in the country in 110 nations, while Germany has such offices in 13 nations.
The Japan Student Services Organization on the other hand, has offices in South Korea and three other countries.
The Asian Gateway plan proposes increasing the number of overseas offices which provide counseling to students wishing to study in Japan and give necessary advice when they return from Japan. The government should promptly take necessary steps in line with this proposal.
Other issues the nation must address are increasing the number of students studying Japanese in foreign countries and improving the housing situation in Japan, which foreign students find difficult to cope with.
The nation cannot afford to waste any time in taking effective measures to encourage more foreign students to study in Japan.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 4, 2007)
(Jun. 4, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/20070604TDY04008.htm
The government's Asian Gateway plan includes a goal of tripling the number of foreign students enrolled at universities and other educational institutions in Japan--currently standing at 120,000--by the end of 2025.
The Education Rebuilding Council, for its part, proposed in its second report that Japan draft a new policy on foreign students that furthers national strategies, including industrial and diplomatic policies.
In the course of the council's discussions, some called for setting a target of accepting 1 million foreign students.
Japan's standing in the international community would be boosted if it could nurture an affinity for Japanese culture among excellent human resources from abroad.
At a time when human resources are increasingly moving across national borders, hiring capable foreign workers who have studied in this country would certainly give Japanese companies a competitive edge.
When the government came up with a plan in 1983 to accept 100,000 foreign students, students from abroad numbered a meager 10,000. After having reached this target, the emphasis should now shift from increasing the quantity of students to attracting top-quality students.
===
International scholars
The United States and European nations are fighting for the lion's share of excellent foreign students. The number of people studying abroad has drastically increased globally, especially in terms of students from Asia. One estimate puts it that their numbers will roughly triple by the end of 2025.
Students from China and South Korea account for 80 percent of the foreign students in Japan, but the fact remains that many top-notch students from these countries are studying in the United States.
How can Japan catch up with the United States as a magnet for excellent foreign students?
Under the Asian Gateway plan, Japan will aim to maintain at least its current share of foreign students, or about 5 percent of foreign students in the world, while also ensuring foreign students coming to Japan are of high quality.
In order to attract highly qualified human resources, the nation must have an education system that is based on high standards and cutting-edge research. It is also necessary to expand the scope of classes taught in English.
===
Boost appeal
One thing that diminishes the attractiveness of Japan as a destination for studying is reluctance on the part of Japanese companies to hire foreigners, citing language problems and differences in customs.
In some cases, students keen to study in Japan sent letters of inquiry to professors, but had to abandon their plans because their letters went unanswered.
Britain has offices responsible for helping students wishing to study in the country in 110 nations, while Germany has such offices in 13 nations.
The Japan Student Services Organization on the other hand, has offices in South Korea and three other countries.
The Asian Gateway plan proposes increasing the number of overseas offices which provide counseling to students wishing to study in Japan and give necessary advice when they return from Japan. The government should promptly take necessary steps in line with this proposal.
Other issues the nation must address are increasing the number of students studying Japanese in foreign countries and improving the housing situation in Japan, which foreign students find difficult to cope with.
The nation cannot afford to waste any time in taking effective measures to encourage more foreign students to study in Japan.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, June 4, 2007)
(Jun. 4, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/20070604TDY04008.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
