Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs has decided to strengthen measures to help foreign residents learn Japanese, and plans to boost the number of language coordinators in local communities, agency officials said Wednesday.
The agency has begun studying concrete measures at the Japanese language education subcommittee set up within its Council for Cultural Affairs, eyeing to implement them in fiscal 2009, starting in April 2009.
An increase in foreign residents in Japan has heightened conflicts between some foreigners and local Japanese people, primarily due to the lack of language skills among foreign residents, according to the officials.
Foreign residents tend to become isolated or fail to follow the rules set out by local municipalities such as rules on garbage disposal, they said.
Against this backdrop, a group consisting of 22 municipalities, such as Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, where foreign residents account for a considerable portion of the local population, has called on the government to strengthen language education for foreigners.
The language coordinators are likely to engage in activities such as providing teaching skills to language instructors, encouraging companies where foreign residents work to provide opportunities to learn Japanese, as well as offering consultation about daily life.
An agency official said, "It is desirable that the coordinators be able to have a certain level of language skills, and commit to the work as full-time professionals on a long-term basis."
The agency is thus planning to recruit the coordinators from those who have passed the Japanese language teaching competency test.
Currently, language teaching is mainly organized by citizens' organizations, which largely depend on volunteer instructors and do not have a systematic teaching curriculum, and most of the coordinators are part-timers and volunteers, according to the officials.
After the immigration law was revised in 1990, foreigners of Japanese descent have been allowed to immigrate to Japan for the purpose of settlement or work, and the number of immigrants from such areas as South America has been increasing.
In 2006, a record high of 2.08 million people registered as foreign residents in Japan.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070815/kyodo/d8r1f1k80.html
Friday, August 17, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
(Korea) National English Proficiency Tests to Debut in 2009
A new government-administered test of English proficiency for students will be introduced during the second half of 2009, and for adults in 2011, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development on July 31.
The move comes as an effort to meet growing demands for qualified English proficiency tests, as scores on such tests are widely reflected in school admission, university graduation, civil servant appointment, certificate acquirement, employment and promotion.
Some 2.69 million Koreans took various kinds of English proficiency tests in 2006, 76 percent of them taking foreign-developed exams such as the TOEFL and TOEIC. In comparison, domestic tests including PELT, TESL, TEPS, ESPT and MATE have been unsuccessful in attracting as much applicants.
Against this background, the government plans to spend about 21.5 billion won ($23.32 million) in the next four years to develop the first government-administered English tests in Korea. The aim is to create a comprehensive and qualified exam which would be internationally recognized, and to enhance domestic capacity for English education and assessment.
The new tests involve speaking, listening, reading and writing exams, which will be conducted through the internet. The ministry is considering classifying the tests into 10 levels according to the test takers' proficiency, from Level 1 for primary first to third graders to levels 8 to 10 for adults.
The ministry will establish a tentatively named ‘Korea English Proficiency Evaluation Foundation’ this year to develop and oversee the tests. The foundation will be jointly run by interested universities, the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation(KICE) and the public Educational Broadcasting System(EBS), under the finance of the government.
A preparation committee for the foundation will also be set up this year under KICE. The committee will conduct researches on English proficiency tests of other countries, develop an assessment framework, create evaluation and management methodologies, and secure budgets and legal grounds.
With the new development, the ministry seeks to reduce dependency on foreign English proficiency tests and prompt schools to improve their English education. Government endeavors are expected to see further facilitation once the bill on the Special Law on English Education Promotion, submitted earlier by the ministry, passes the National Assembly.
http://english.moe.go.kr/main.jsp?idx=070101&brd_no=30&cp=1&pageSize=10&srchSel=&srchVal=&brd_mainno=542&mode=v
The move comes as an effort to meet growing demands for qualified English proficiency tests, as scores on such tests are widely reflected in school admission, university graduation, civil servant appointment, certificate acquirement, employment and promotion.
Some 2.69 million Koreans took various kinds of English proficiency tests in 2006, 76 percent of them taking foreign-developed exams such as the TOEFL and TOEIC. In comparison, domestic tests including PELT, TESL, TEPS, ESPT and MATE have been unsuccessful in attracting as much applicants.
Against this background, the government plans to spend about 21.5 billion won ($23.32 million) in the next four years to develop the first government-administered English tests in Korea. The aim is to create a comprehensive and qualified exam which would be internationally recognized, and to enhance domestic capacity for English education and assessment.
The new tests involve speaking, listening, reading and writing exams, which will be conducted through the internet. The ministry is considering classifying the tests into 10 levels according to the test takers' proficiency, from Level 1 for primary first to third graders to levels 8 to 10 for adults.
The ministry will establish a tentatively named ‘Korea English Proficiency Evaluation Foundation’ this year to develop and oversee the tests. The foundation will be jointly run by interested universities, the Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation(KICE) and the public Educational Broadcasting System(EBS), under the finance of the government.
A preparation committee for the foundation will also be set up this year under KICE. The committee will conduct researches on English proficiency tests of other countries, develop an assessment framework, create evaluation and management methodologies, and secure budgets and legal grounds.
With the new development, the ministry seeks to reduce dependency on foreign English proficiency tests and prompt schools to improve their English education. Government endeavors are expected to see further facilitation once the bill on the Special Law on English Education Promotion, submitted earlier by the ministry, passes the National Assembly.
http://english.moe.go.kr/main.jsp?idx=070101&brd_no=30&cp=1&pageSize=10&srchSel=&srchVal=&brd_mainno=542&mode=v
Number of foreign students staying on to work in Japan hits record high
The number of foreign students who found jobs in the country surged to a record 8,272 last year, up 40 percent from the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry's Immigration Bureau.
The surge is attributable to an improving job market and growing demand for translators and interpreters jobs due to Japanese companies' expansion of overseas operations.
The number of applications filed by foreign residents to change their visa status from "College Student" or "Precollege Student" to "Specialist in Humanities/International Services," the visa status required for people wishing to work in certain sectors, totaled 9,034 in 2006, of which 8,272 were granted.
The number of applications for such a change in status was 5,878 in 2005 and 5,264 in 2004.
Asian students accounted for more than 90 percent of foreign residents who found jobs here after graduating from Japanese educational institutions, according to the immigration bureau's statistics.
Chinese students topped the list with 6,000 people, a 43.3 percent rise from 2005, followed by 944 South Koreans and 200 Taiwan students, also up 26.4 percent and 19 percent year on year, respectively.
Bangladesh claimed fourth place with 119 people, a 108.8 percent jump from 2005, while Malaysia took fifth place with 118 people, up 71 percent year on year.
About 70 percent of foreign graduates who were employed in Japan last year went to nonmanufacturing industries. Of those, 1,792 people entered commercial and trade businesses.
The number of students who stepped into computer-related fields was 1,140, while that of those who obtained education-related jobs was 479. By job description, the largest number of foreign graduates--2,711, which is about 30 percent of the total number--were hired as translators or interpreters. Accounting for more than 60 percent of the total, 893 foreign graduates obtained information-processing jobs, 882 went for sales-related jobs and 732 entered overseas operations.
A ministry official said, "Growing demand for translators and interpreters among domestic companies has perhaps helped boost the employment of foreign students."
(Aug. 15, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070815TDY01002.htm
The surge is attributable to an improving job market and growing demand for translators and interpreters jobs due to Japanese companies' expansion of overseas operations.
The number of applications filed by foreign residents to change their visa status from "College Student" or "Precollege Student" to "Specialist in Humanities/International Services," the visa status required for people wishing to work in certain sectors, totaled 9,034 in 2006, of which 8,272 were granted.
The number of applications for such a change in status was 5,878 in 2005 and 5,264 in 2004.
Asian students accounted for more than 90 percent of foreign residents who found jobs here after graduating from Japanese educational institutions, according to the immigration bureau's statistics.
Chinese students topped the list with 6,000 people, a 43.3 percent rise from 2005, followed by 944 South Koreans and 200 Taiwan students, also up 26.4 percent and 19 percent year on year, respectively.
Bangladesh claimed fourth place with 119 people, a 108.8 percent jump from 2005, while Malaysia took fifth place with 118 people, up 71 percent year on year.
About 70 percent of foreign graduates who were employed in Japan last year went to nonmanufacturing industries. Of those, 1,792 people entered commercial and trade businesses.
The number of students who stepped into computer-related fields was 1,140, while that of those who obtained education-related jobs was 479. By job description, the largest number of foreign graduates--2,711, which is about 30 percent of the total number--were hired as translators or interpreters. Accounting for more than 60 percent of the total, 893 foreign graduates obtained information-processing jobs, 882 went for sales-related jobs and 732 entered overseas operations.
A ministry official said, "Growing demand for translators and interpreters among domestic companies has perhaps helped boost the employment of foreign students."
(Aug. 15, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070815TDY01002.htm
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Australia seeks more Japanese student tourists
Australia is targeting Japanese students keen to learn English by offering language vacations and "study and surf" tours as added incentives to travel Down Under.
The new tourism strategy comes amid a protracted slump in the number of Japanese visiting Australia.
Figures released Friday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show short-term visitor arrivals from Japan fell 14.2 percent last year. In contrast, the number of visitors from other parts of Asia has been rising.
The government and tourism industry hope the situation can be turned around by encouraging Japan's "study tourism" market.
Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who has blamed the low Japanese numbers on the Australian dollar's strength against the yen and increased competition from cheaper Asian destinations, told The Australian Financial Review newspaper the push is on to lure more Japanese students.
"A key target of future growth is the Japanese market, from school tours to language vacations and longer-term study and surf tours," Bailey said.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070807b6.html
The new tourism strategy comes amid a protracted slump in the number of Japanese visiting Australia.
Figures released Friday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show short-term visitor arrivals from Japan fell 14.2 percent last year. In contrast, the number of visitors from other parts of Asia has been rising.
The government and tourism industry hope the situation can be turned around by encouraging Japan's "study tourism" market.
Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who has blamed the low Japanese numbers on the Australian dollar's strength against the yen and increased competition from cheaper Asian destinations, told The Australian Financial Review newspaper the push is on to lure more Japanese students.
"A key target of future growth is the Japanese market, from school tours to language vacations and longer-term study and surf tours," Bailey said.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070807b6.html
Friday, August 03, 2007
University staff drop in on students before they drop out
Recently, an increasing number of universities are trying to address the problem of absentee students through methods that some people might consider going a bit overboard--such as early-morning wakeup phone calls.
Their reasoning is that it is not just the students who lose out when they drop out and fail to earn their degrees. It is also bad business for the private universities.
At Hachinohe Institute of Technology in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, teaching staff keep detailed attendance records for their students.
Lecturers, armed with scanners similar to those used in supermarkets, scan bar codes on the ID cards of students at each class.
The information is later transmitted to an administrative database containing two weeks' worth of student attendance records.
The scanner system was developed five years ago for the university's 1,700 undergraduates as part of a student support system.
A member of the university's teaching staff is assigned to each class, taking on a similar role to a high-school homeroom teacher by keeping a close watch over students' attendance.
If a student is absent from a lecture on three consecutive occasions, the instructor calls the student's cellphone and sets up a meeting.
Staff members meet each Wednesday morning to share information so that colleagues can keep an eye on students who tend to be absent from class.
The system is paying off.
University administrators found that by closely managing absenteeism, students deemed to be at risk can be prevented from dropping out.
The higher the attendance, the higher the ratio of students gaining credits and progressing further toward their degrees. According to university officials, for every four students who repeat a year, one ends up dropping out.
A survey by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan showed that in fiscal 2005, the dropout rate among 550 private universities stood at 2.9 percent.
In fiscal 2002, the ratio was 3.3 percent among 439 institutions surveyed.
The main reasons for students dropping out, as cited by the universities, were: financial difficulties, a loss of interest in studying or a move to another institution.
Katsuyoshi Shinyama, a lecturer of electronic engineering at Hachinohe Institute of Technology, was responsible for a class that graduated this past spring.
"(Keeping tabs on student attendance) is like undergoing annual health checks to watch for early signs of cancer," he said.
If you catch symptoms early, the prognosis is good.
Institute president Masami Shoya said many students are now entering universities via recommendations from high schools or through interviews and compositions assessed by the university admission office, rather than through conventional competitive entrance exams.
He said he believed this was one reason some students needed to be more closely watched.
Still, the dropout rate at the university has hovered around the national average of 3 percent over the last decade or so.
"It is important to swiftly deal with problems (that could result in dropouts)," said Shigetaka Fujita, assistant to the president.
"We have somehow been able to keep the rate at this level."
At Nippon Institute of Technology in Miyashiro, Saitama Prefecture, staff members in the university's study-support center call up students who are continually absent from classes.
The members even call students who are notorious for sleeping in, even though they intend to attend classes.
Students are required to submit absentee slips each time they miss a class. Staff members want the students to feel that having to write the slips is more of a chore than actually coming to class.
The institute set up the center three years ago to help students with their studies as well as with their daily lives,
A 20-year-old third-year student said he had often played truant since junior high school because of bullying.
He enrolled at the institute after being chosen by the admissions office but felt he could not keep up with classes because he lacked basic knowledge.
He has sought advice from the center.
"Without the center, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make friends, either," he said.
Recently, parents of students have asked if they could also visit the center.
"This is like a shelter," said staff member Takaharu Tanaka, an associate professor. "(Some of the parents) don't know how to handle their children."
(IHT/Asahi: August 3,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200708030091.html
Their reasoning is that it is not just the students who lose out when they drop out and fail to earn their degrees. It is also bad business for the private universities.
At Hachinohe Institute of Technology in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, teaching staff keep detailed attendance records for their students.
Lecturers, armed with scanners similar to those used in supermarkets, scan bar codes on the ID cards of students at each class.
The information is later transmitted to an administrative database containing two weeks' worth of student attendance records.
The scanner system was developed five years ago for the university's 1,700 undergraduates as part of a student support system.
A member of the university's teaching staff is assigned to each class, taking on a similar role to a high-school homeroom teacher by keeping a close watch over students' attendance.
If a student is absent from a lecture on three consecutive occasions, the instructor calls the student's cellphone and sets up a meeting.
Staff members meet each Wednesday morning to share information so that colleagues can keep an eye on students who tend to be absent from class.
The system is paying off.
University administrators found that by closely managing absenteeism, students deemed to be at risk can be prevented from dropping out.
The higher the attendance, the higher the ratio of students gaining credits and progressing further toward their degrees. According to university officials, for every four students who repeat a year, one ends up dropping out.
A survey by the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan showed that in fiscal 2005, the dropout rate among 550 private universities stood at 2.9 percent.
In fiscal 2002, the ratio was 3.3 percent among 439 institutions surveyed.
The main reasons for students dropping out, as cited by the universities, were: financial difficulties, a loss of interest in studying or a move to another institution.
Katsuyoshi Shinyama, a lecturer of electronic engineering at Hachinohe Institute of Technology, was responsible for a class that graduated this past spring.
"(Keeping tabs on student attendance) is like undergoing annual health checks to watch for early signs of cancer," he said.
If you catch symptoms early, the prognosis is good.
Institute president Masami Shoya said many students are now entering universities via recommendations from high schools or through interviews and compositions assessed by the university admission office, rather than through conventional competitive entrance exams.
He said he believed this was one reason some students needed to be more closely watched.
Still, the dropout rate at the university has hovered around the national average of 3 percent over the last decade or so.
"It is important to swiftly deal with problems (that could result in dropouts)," said Shigetaka Fujita, assistant to the president.
"We have somehow been able to keep the rate at this level."
At Nippon Institute of Technology in Miyashiro, Saitama Prefecture, staff members in the university's study-support center call up students who are continually absent from classes.
The members even call students who are notorious for sleeping in, even though they intend to attend classes.
Students are required to submit absentee slips each time they miss a class. Staff members want the students to feel that having to write the slips is more of a chore than actually coming to class.
The institute set up the center three years ago to help students with their studies as well as with their daily lives,
A 20-year-old third-year student said he had often played truant since junior high school because of bullying.
He enrolled at the institute after being chosen by the admissions office but felt he could not keep up with classes because he lacked basic knowledge.
He has sought advice from the center.
"Without the center, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to make friends, either," he said.
Recently, parents of students have asked if they could also visit the center.
"This is like a shelter," said staff member Takaharu Tanaka, an associate professor. "(Some of the parents) don't know how to handle their children."
(IHT/Asahi: August 3,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200708030091.html
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
College officials get managing skills help
With the financial environment surrounding universities growing increasingly tight due to the declining birthrate, a nonprofit organization is helping university officials improve their managerial skills and get more hands-on in operating their schools.
The Support Center for University Officials aims to nurture university officials with a more professional mind-set and greater expertise, the group said.
At Ferris University's Ryokuen campus in Izumi Ward, Yokohama, 72 people, including about 50 university officials, attended an in-school training session on July 24.
"Rather than leaving the school management in the hands of faculty members, I want you university officials to gain the expertise to make proposals for the reform of the school," said Makoto Obinata, the center's chief director and a former managing director of Shibaura Institute of Technology.
With the arrival of an era when universities are scrambling for a shrinking number of high school graduates, private universities in particular are facing the need to tout their selling points to survive this difficult time.
Under such circumstances, university officials, who traditionally have simply followed decisions made at faculty meetings, will be expected to proactively make proposals, such as the reorganization of departments and new methods of conducting admission exams.
In response to such moves, former officials of Hosei, Waseda, Meiji and other universities founded the center in March and started training university officials. Many were involved in the launch of new departments and other reforms at their schools.
In the Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo-based center's training program on group discussions, for instance, participants are asked to exchange opinions about a university reform plan proposed by one of the attendants. They are asked to point out where the problems lie and discuss how to improve the original plan.
The program aims to help people view things from a different perspective from their own through other people's proposals, according to the group.
From September, the group also plans to organize a training camp in which officials from different universities are expected to take part.
Another important mission of the center is to help universities hire employees.
According to Jitsukazu Wada, director general of the center and a former board member of Hosei University, many applicants seem to be under the misapprehension that they will be able to secure a stable life as a university employee, and that it will be easy for them to take long vacations.
To prevent people from applying for a position at universities for such irresponsible reasons, the center gave detailed explanations on university workers' daily duties at a seminar it organized shortly after the group's launch in March.
Furthermore, the center reportedly has been asked by a private university to evaluate a part-time worker who is under consideration as a candidate for a full-time position.
"By now, university officials have been expected to simply support faculty members," Obinata, 75, said. "But if they acquire planning ability, they'll be able to provide a better service to students."
He also said his group hopes to help improve the expertise of officials at smaller universities, which often find it difficult to establish their own systems to improve their officials' skills.
(Aug. 1, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070801TDY04002.htm
The Support Center for University Officials aims to nurture university officials with a more professional mind-set and greater expertise, the group said.
At Ferris University's Ryokuen campus in Izumi Ward, Yokohama, 72 people, including about 50 university officials, attended an in-school training session on July 24.
"Rather than leaving the school management in the hands of faculty members, I want you university officials to gain the expertise to make proposals for the reform of the school," said Makoto Obinata, the center's chief director and a former managing director of Shibaura Institute of Technology.
With the arrival of an era when universities are scrambling for a shrinking number of high school graduates, private universities in particular are facing the need to tout their selling points to survive this difficult time.
Under such circumstances, university officials, who traditionally have simply followed decisions made at faculty meetings, will be expected to proactively make proposals, such as the reorganization of departments and new methods of conducting admission exams.
In response to such moves, former officials of Hosei, Waseda, Meiji and other universities founded the center in March and started training university officials. Many were involved in the launch of new departments and other reforms at their schools.
In the Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo-based center's training program on group discussions, for instance, participants are asked to exchange opinions about a university reform plan proposed by one of the attendants. They are asked to point out where the problems lie and discuss how to improve the original plan.
The program aims to help people view things from a different perspective from their own through other people's proposals, according to the group.
From September, the group also plans to organize a training camp in which officials from different universities are expected to take part.
Another important mission of the center is to help universities hire employees.
According to Jitsukazu Wada, director general of the center and a former board member of Hosei University, many applicants seem to be under the misapprehension that they will be able to secure a stable life as a university employee, and that it will be easy for them to take long vacations.
To prevent people from applying for a position at universities for such irresponsible reasons, the center gave detailed explanations on university workers' daily duties at a seminar it organized shortly after the group's launch in March.
Furthermore, the center reportedly has been asked by a private university to evaluate a part-time worker who is under consideration as a candidate for a full-time position.
"By now, university officials have been expected to simply support faculty members," Obinata, 75, said. "But if they acquire planning ability, they'll be able to provide a better service to students."
He also said his group hopes to help improve the expertise of officials at smaller universities, which often find it difficult to establish their own systems to improve their officials' skills.
(Aug. 1, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070801TDY04002.htm
'Eikaiwa' vets look beyond Big Four
Globalization, the Internet and increased mobility have made the planet a smaller place. The world is now often referred to as a global community, and its lingua franca is undoubtedly English. It is the official language of air traffic control and the de facto language of both international business and, apparently, international terrorism. According to linguist David Graddol, one third of the world's population will soon be studying English.
The quality of teachers was consistently cited in interviews as the most important issue for longtime learners of English in Japan.
The market for English lessons in Japan is huge, and the options facing would-be students here can be daunting. There are the ubiquitous "big four" chain schools — Nova, Aeon, Geos and ECC — that can be found near most decent-size train stations. There are a few medium-size chains, which market themselves as a more personal alternative to the major players. Finally, at the other end of the scale are the independently owned English schools, often run by expats who have decided to stay long-term in Japan.
There are alternatives to "eikaiwa" (English conversation, or English conversation schools) too.
Many companies, especially foreign ones or Japanese firms with a strong overseas presence, provide English lessons on-site for their employees. Some people may choose to avoid the conversation-school route completely and take lessons with a private tutor. They can usually be found through specialized Web sites or classified ads, and the lessons generally take place in a coffee shop or in the student's home. For those who find themselves strapped for cash, there is always the option of doing a language exchange — teaching Japanese in return for being taught English.
A few months ago I wrote an article for the Community Page about the different choices facing those who decide to teach English in Japan (see search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070313zg.html). This time I spoke to Japanese people about the best places to study English. Everyone I spoke to had their own reasons for studying and had taken lessons at a variety of places.
Yasuhiro Nishimi works for a multinational pharmaceutical company in Tokyo and uses English most days at work. In the past he has studied at several schools, and also at his office with teachers dispatched from an agency. Perhaps not surprisingly, having lessons in his office was the most convenient option. However, the quality of the teachers was something of a problem.
"Most of them were university students, so it was difficult to talk about business matters," Nishimi explained. What's more, he said, the teachers changed regularly so it was difficult to build up any rapport with them.
Since then he has taken lessons at three of the big chain schools, as well as a small privately run conversation school near his home. In terms of learning, Nishimi said that Berlitz was the most effective of the big schools.
"The quality of the teachers was good," and "the 'Berlitz Method' worked," he said.
However, this didn't come cheaply, and he felt that the atmosphere in the school was a little too formal.
Of the other two schools, Nova faired better in terms of class size, with a maximum of three students compared to Aeon's eight. On the other hand, lessons at Aeon were always with the same teacher, whereas the teacher at Nova could change every time. Nishimi felt that the quality of the teachers at Nova was not always guaranteed.
"It depended a lot on luck," he said.
Nishimi now takes lessons at a small school near his home. He said the location is ideal, and the cost of lessons at this school is much cheaper than any of the big chains. There is also a much larger degree of flexibility in scheduling than in the larger schools (Nova was recently penalized for making unrealistic claims about the ease of reserving lessons). However, at a school this size, that flexibility goes both ways, and the teacher may also ask to rearrange lessons.
Of course, not everyone learns English for work. "Travel," "communicating with people of different nationalities," and even "watching films and listening to music" are all reasons often cited by students for studying the language. Those who want to study a more general form of English conversation usually choose an eikaiwa school — but which one?
Until recently, Yuriko Atsuta worked at a trading company in Tokyo where she sometimes needed to use English. At that time she studied general English conversation at the Lado International College of Japan, which went bankrupt in April.
However, she has now quit her job in order to try and pass the Japanese government's test for tour guides, so she is taking more specialized lessons at a small school in Tokyo.
Atsuta said that lessons at Lado were "better than in other large schools," and the quality of the teachers was "generally good." However, group size was again a problem, as classes had up to six or eight students, meaning that Atsuta had less chance to speak.
As for the small school, Atsuta said she was satisfied with the lessons she received there.
"I am given lessons by the same teacher every time and the contents are well considered and consistent," she said. "The quality of the lessons is very good because the teacher knows why I'm studying and what my objectives are."
For Atsuta, the small school has been much better, but these kinds of schools are often not easy to find.
"Large schools advertise themselves and it's easy for students to compare them," said Atsuta.
On the other hand, the advertising for a small school may be little more than sign on the street outside the school, or flyers posted through doors in the local area.
Despite this, small schools can often rely on that holy grail of marketing — word of mouth.
The Nova bunny and the 2-minute Berlitz video lessons on Tokyo's Yamanote Line may be more visible, but a recommendation from a friend is more likely to be acted upon.
Yukiko Hanaoka, a housewife from Tokyo and a friend of Atsuta's, said as much when I interviewed her. She lived in South Africa and studied English there under a private tutor for three years from when she was 10. Last year she passed the National Guide Test after studying at a well known exam prep school in Tokyo. This is her only experience learning English in Japan, but she said that if she were to take lessons at a conversation school, she'd be more likely to go to a small one.
"The larger schools may have more advantages in terms of location and facilities, but small schools are more reliable, since they are often recommended by a friend, usually have an original education program, a customized approach and a friendly atmosphere, all at a reasonable price," she explained.
When learning a language, what works for one person might not work at all for another, but a few common points emerged from the interviews I conducted.
Everyone I spoke to said the quality of the teacher was the most important factor for them, regardless of the size of the school or the type of lesson. At some of the big schools this could be hit or miss, a result either of the high staff turnover or the schools' policy of rotating teachers.
On the other hand, small schools did well in this respect. Their turnover is fairly small — at least compared with the larger schools — and students usually have the same teacher for each lesson.
For those who are starting at quite a low level, a larger school would probably be best. They often have a set teaching method that all the teachers follow, and this can be a very effective way to get to grips with the basics. However, for students who are of a higher level, or who have a more specific goal in mind, finding a good small school is likely to be more beneficial.
Ultimately, however, it's up to each individual to find out what works best for them.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070731zg.html
The quality of teachers was consistently cited in interviews as the most important issue for longtime learners of English in Japan.
The market for English lessons in Japan is huge, and the options facing would-be students here can be daunting. There are the ubiquitous "big four" chain schools — Nova, Aeon, Geos and ECC — that can be found near most decent-size train stations. There are a few medium-size chains, which market themselves as a more personal alternative to the major players. Finally, at the other end of the scale are the independently owned English schools, often run by expats who have decided to stay long-term in Japan.
There are alternatives to "eikaiwa" (English conversation, or English conversation schools) too.
Many companies, especially foreign ones or Japanese firms with a strong overseas presence, provide English lessons on-site for their employees. Some people may choose to avoid the conversation-school route completely and take lessons with a private tutor. They can usually be found through specialized Web sites or classified ads, and the lessons generally take place in a coffee shop or in the student's home. For those who find themselves strapped for cash, there is always the option of doing a language exchange — teaching Japanese in return for being taught English.
A few months ago I wrote an article for the Community Page about the different choices facing those who decide to teach English in Japan (see search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070313zg.html). This time I spoke to Japanese people about the best places to study English. Everyone I spoke to had their own reasons for studying and had taken lessons at a variety of places.
Yasuhiro Nishimi works for a multinational pharmaceutical company in Tokyo and uses English most days at work. In the past he has studied at several schools, and also at his office with teachers dispatched from an agency. Perhaps not surprisingly, having lessons in his office was the most convenient option. However, the quality of the teachers was something of a problem.
"Most of them were university students, so it was difficult to talk about business matters," Nishimi explained. What's more, he said, the teachers changed regularly so it was difficult to build up any rapport with them.
Since then he has taken lessons at three of the big chain schools, as well as a small privately run conversation school near his home. In terms of learning, Nishimi said that Berlitz was the most effective of the big schools.
"The quality of the teachers was good," and "the 'Berlitz Method' worked," he said.
However, this didn't come cheaply, and he felt that the atmosphere in the school was a little too formal.
Of the other two schools, Nova faired better in terms of class size, with a maximum of three students compared to Aeon's eight. On the other hand, lessons at Aeon were always with the same teacher, whereas the teacher at Nova could change every time. Nishimi felt that the quality of the teachers at Nova was not always guaranteed.
"It depended a lot on luck," he said.
Nishimi now takes lessons at a small school near his home. He said the location is ideal, and the cost of lessons at this school is much cheaper than any of the big chains. There is also a much larger degree of flexibility in scheduling than in the larger schools (Nova was recently penalized for making unrealistic claims about the ease of reserving lessons). However, at a school this size, that flexibility goes both ways, and the teacher may also ask to rearrange lessons.
Of course, not everyone learns English for work. "Travel," "communicating with people of different nationalities," and even "watching films and listening to music" are all reasons often cited by students for studying the language. Those who want to study a more general form of English conversation usually choose an eikaiwa school — but which one?
Until recently, Yuriko Atsuta worked at a trading company in Tokyo where she sometimes needed to use English. At that time she studied general English conversation at the Lado International College of Japan, which went bankrupt in April.
However, she has now quit her job in order to try and pass the Japanese government's test for tour guides, so she is taking more specialized lessons at a small school in Tokyo.
Atsuta said that lessons at Lado were "better than in other large schools," and the quality of the teachers was "generally good." However, group size was again a problem, as classes had up to six or eight students, meaning that Atsuta had less chance to speak.
As for the small school, Atsuta said she was satisfied with the lessons she received there.
"I am given lessons by the same teacher every time and the contents are well considered and consistent," she said. "The quality of the lessons is very good because the teacher knows why I'm studying and what my objectives are."
For Atsuta, the small school has been much better, but these kinds of schools are often not easy to find.
"Large schools advertise themselves and it's easy for students to compare them," said Atsuta.
On the other hand, the advertising for a small school may be little more than sign on the street outside the school, or flyers posted through doors in the local area.
Despite this, small schools can often rely on that holy grail of marketing — word of mouth.
The Nova bunny and the 2-minute Berlitz video lessons on Tokyo's Yamanote Line may be more visible, but a recommendation from a friend is more likely to be acted upon.
Yukiko Hanaoka, a housewife from Tokyo and a friend of Atsuta's, said as much when I interviewed her. She lived in South Africa and studied English there under a private tutor for three years from when she was 10. Last year she passed the National Guide Test after studying at a well known exam prep school in Tokyo. This is her only experience learning English in Japan, but she said that if she were to take lessons at a conversation school, she'd be more likely to go to a small one.
"The larger schools may have more advantages in terms of location and facilities, but small schools are more reliable, since they are often recommended by a friend, usually have an original education program, a customized approach and a friendly atmosphere, all at a reasonable price," she explained.
When learning a language, what works for one person might not work at all for another, but a few common points emerged from the interviews I conducted.
Everyone I spoke to said the quality of the teacher was the most important factor for them, regardless of the size of the school or the type of lesson. At some of the big schools this could be hit or miss, a result either of the high staff turnover or the schools' policy of rotating teachers.
On the other hand, small schools did well in this respect. Their turnover is fairly small — at least compared with the larger schools — and students usually have the same teacher for each lesson.
For those who are starting at quite a low level, a larger school would probably be best. They often have a set teaching method that all the teachers follow, and this can be a very effective way to get to grips with the basics. However, for students who are of a higher level, or who have a more specific goal in mind, finding a good small school is likely to be more beneficial.
Ultimately, however, it's up to each individual to find out what works best for them.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070731zg.html
263 schools closed over last 4 months due to measles outbreak
Two hundred and sixty-three schools have been temporarily closed across Japan since April after a measles outbreak, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said.
The educational institutions include 83 universities, 73 high schools, 27 junior high schools and 18 elementary schools.
The ministry said 2,511 students have been diagnosed with measles between April and late July. (Mainichi)
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070728p2a00m0na009000c.html
The educational institutions include 83 universities, 73 high schools, 27 junior high schools and 18 elementary schools.
The ministry said 2,511 students have been diagnosed with measles between April and late July. (Mainichi)
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070728p2a00m0na009000c.html
Thursday, July 26, 2007
More firms recruiting foreign graduates
Companies wanting to gain a competitive edge in the global marketplace are looking to hire foreign graduates of Japanese universities, especially those from China.
And students are eager to grab the opportunities, with the number of foreign students after graduation who changed their visa status to work in Japan in 2005 nearly double that of 2002.
Osaka-based electronics titan Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. currently has 120 foreigners on the payroll. But the company plans to hire an additional 100 over a three-year period starting in 2008.
Foreign students from Japanese universities also make up about 10 percent of the entire intake of new hires at the company's overseas subsidiaries in China and elsewhere.
"We can't do without the international viewpoint in order to manufacture and market products that pass muster around the globe," a recruiter for the company said.
Sumitomo Chemical Co., based in Tokyo, began hiring foreign students in 2005, coinciding with expansions of operations in China and South Korea. The company usually hires two foreign students in Japan every year, but plans to take in more in the future.
Sumitomo Chemical's overseas subsidiaries hire around 10 foreign graduates of Japanese universities every year. Hiroshi Niinuma, of the company's human resources department, said: "We are looking for skilled foreign personnel who can handle international projects in Japan; and for our overseas arms, we are seeking personnel who can serve as their liaison with Japanese operations. Foreign students studying in Japan prove a valuable pool of talent."
According to immigration authorities, 5,878 foreign students changed their visa status in 2005 to work in Japan. The figure amounted to 20 percent of all foreign graduates here that year.
Of those graduates, 4,186 were from China and 747 were from South Korea.
Even companies that have no overseas operations are trying to secure foreign students.
Cainz Home, a major home improvement retailer based in Gunma Prefecture, hired 18 employees from China in the last three years and will hire more in spring.
Cainz is looking for staff who can procure goods from China and collaborate with Chinese companies to develop new products.
"(Chinese recruits) are extremely ambitious and tackle brand new projects with a kind of gung-ho spirit," a Cainz human resources officer said.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducted a survey this spring asking listed companies about their plans to recruit graduates who can function in the global environment. Of the 289 companies that responded to the questionnaire, about 40 percent said they hoped to hire foreign students who have studied in Japan.
Foreign students studying in Japan are also keen on finding jobs with Japanese companies. In late May, the International Foreign Students Association, a nonprofit organization based in Tokyo, hosted a joint recruiting fair. A 22-year-old fourth-year student studying at Saitama University said she hoped to land a job with a big Japanese firm with a subsidiary in Malaysia so she could return home.
A 28-year-old Chinese student attending university in Tokyo was hoping to land a job with a cosmetics company. "My first choice would be a major company that handles overseas operations," she said. "But when you are a foreign student, it is not that easy to get an official offer--not like my Japanese counterparts."(IHT/Asahi: July 25,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707250094.html
And students are eager to grab the opportunities, with the number of foreign students after graduation who changed their visa status to work in Japan in 2005 nearly double that of 2002.
Osaka-based electronics titan Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. currently has 120 foreigners on the payroll. But the company plans to hire an additional 100 over a three-year period starting in 2008.
Foreign students from Japanese universities also make up about 10 percent of the entire intake of new hires at the company's overseas subsidiaries in China and elsewhere.
"We can't do without the international viewpoint in order to manufacture and market products that pass muster around the globe," a recruiter for the company said.
Sumitomo Chemical Co., based in Tokyo, began hiring foreign students in 2005, coinciding with expansions of operations in China and South Korea. The company usually hires two foreign students in Japan every year, but plans to take in more in the future.
Sumitomo Chemical's overseas subsidiaries hire around 10 foreign graduates of Japanese universities every year. Hiroshi Niinuma, of the company's human resources department, said: "We are looking for skilled foreign personnel who can handle international projects in Japan; and for our overseas arms, we are seeking personnel who can serve as their liaison with Japanese operations. Foreign students studying in Japan prove a valuable pool of talent."
According to immigration authorities, 5,878 foreign students changed their visa status in 2005 to work in Japan. The figure amounted to 20 percent of all foreign graduates here that year.
Of those graduates, 4,186 were from China and 747 were from South Korea.
Even companies that have no overseas operations are trying to secure foreign students.
Cainz Home, a major home improvement retailer based in Gunma Prefecture, hired 18 employees from China in the last three years and will hire more in spring.
Cainz is looking for staff who can procure goods from China and collaborate with Chinese companies to develop new products.
"(Chinese recruits) are extremely ambitious and tackle brand new projects with a kind of gung-ho spirit," a Cainz human resources officer said.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry conducted a survey this spring asking listed companies about their plans to recruit graduates who can function in the global environment. Of the 289 companies that responded to the questionnaire, about 40 percent said they hoped to hire foreign students who have studied in Japan.
Foreign students studying in Japan are also keen on finding jobs with Japanese companies. In late May, the International Foreign Students Association, a nonprofit organization based in Tokyo, hosted a joint recruiting fair. A 22-year-old fourth-year student studying at Saitama University said she hoped to land a job with a big Japanese firm with a subsidiary in Malaysia so she could return home.
A 28-year-old Chinese student attending university in Tokyo was hoping to land a job with a cosmetics company. "My first choice would be a major company that handles overseas operations," she said. "But when you are a foreign student, it is not that easy to get an official offer--not like my Japanese counterparts."(IHT/Asahi: July 25,2007)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200707250094.html
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Govt to crack down on fake univ. credentials
Concern that an increasing number of overseas institutions award fake university degrees has prompted the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to investigate whether any faculty members at universities nationwide have obtained such bogus diplomas.
The ministry hopes to make its report public by autumn this year.
The institutions in question reportedly grant fake doctorates and other university degrees, although they do not actually engage in educational activities.
The education ministry suspects that organizations registered in Australia, Britain, China and the United States have issued degrees without being accredited in these countries.
(Jul. 25, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070725TDY02002.htm
The ministry hopes to make its report public by autumn this year.
The institutions in question reportedly grant fake doctorates and other university degrees, although they do not actually engage in educational activities.
The education ministry suspects that organizations registered in Australia, Britain, China and the United States have issued degrees without being accredited in these countries.
(Jul. 25, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070725TDY02002.htm
Monday, July 23, 2007
No. of students entering colleges in Sept. decreasing
Of 153 colleges which allowed new students to join them in September in fiscal 2005, only 63, about 40 percent, actually had new students entering at times other than in April, the usual start of Japan's academic year, the education ministry said Sunday.
The number of such students, including those from overseas, stood at 1,569, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The numbers both of such colleges and students declined from the previous fiscal year, indicating that students remain reluctant to enter colleges in September as they cannot then immediately gain employment after graduation. The new business year in Japan also starts in April.
The 153 colleges comprise 27 national ones, eight local government-run universities and 118 private schools.
Although the government has urged colleges to introduce a September-entrance system, some have stopped recruiting students for the fall semester due to the decrease in the number of the applicants.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070722/kyodo/d8qhgs100.html
The number of such students, including those from overseas, stood at 1,569, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The numbers both of such colleges and students declined from the previous fiscal year, indicating that students remain reluctant to enter colleges in September as they cannot then immediately gain employment after graduation. The new business year in Japan also starts in April.
The 153 colleges comprise 27 national ones, eight local government-run universities and 118 private schools.
Although the government has urged colleges to introduce a September-entrance system, some have stopped recruiting students for the fall semester due to the decrease in the number of the applicants.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070722/kyodo/d8qhgs100.html
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Interest growing in Arabic language
"As-salaamu Alaykum." In other words, "Konnichi wa." Although it has been long regarded as a minor language that is studied by a limited number of people such as researchers, Arabic is becoming popular with an increasing number of learners. To explain its new popularity, some point to the increased media attention the Arabic-speaking world has been drawing in light of war, political confusion and the other hardships facing the people there.
The Arabic Islamic Institute in Tokyo, which is run by the Saudi Arabian government, has been offering free Arabic classes since April 2001. The classes started with about 100 students in their first year, but have been taken by about 160 students annually since 2003.
The institute offers the free classes in two semesters starting in April and September. Students are divided into four levels, with beginners classes being the most popular. Although each class can accept up to 30 students, the beginners' class attracted about 50 applicants for each of the two most recent semesters.
When The Yomiuri Shimbun recently visited an upper-intermediate Level 3 class, the second highest level, the students were practicing writing.
Egyptian instructor Gamal Zaitoun, 46, asked in Arabic, "What did you do over the weekend?" One of the students, Yoshiyuki Sato, 26, of Sumida Ward, Tokyo, replied, "I enjoyed having zosui [rice stew]." The instructor told Sato to write the sentence down.
Sato walked to a whiteboard at the front of the room and began spelling out his words in Arabic letters that flowed from right to left.
"Mumtaaz [Splendid]," Zaitoun said.
In addition to the institute, an increasing number of other organizations have begun offering Arabic classes. NHK launched a televised Arabic course in 2003, while the University of the Air--which offers correspondence courses via television and radio--also started such a course last year.
More and more universities have been following the move. In 2001, there were 27 Arabic courses offered at the university level nationwide. By 2005, that figure had nearly doubled, to 52.
There is also a small private Arabic school in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Gallery PoRto LibRE turns itself into an Arabic school every Tuesday night. One of the instructors there is Michiko Suzuki, 60, who runs a bar next door. The school was "launched" when Suzuki's regular customers asked her to teach them Arabic as she once studied in Egypt.
The nation's first Arabic proficiency examination is now under way. Keiko Miyakawa, 35, of Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, whose husband works at the Japanese Embassy in Cairo, has established a nonprofit organization named the Japanese Organization for Arabic Language Examinations. The first test will be set for the end of October in Tokyo and Osaka.
Arabic is spoken in more than 20 countries in the Middle East. It may be unfamiliar to many in Japan, but there are many words that are familiar to Japanese that are said to have originated from the language--such as coffee, lemon, orange, massage, candy and sherbet.
Nonetheless, many hurdles face Japanese in improving their Arabic skills. For example, the language has a variety of sounds similar to "ka" and "sa" in Japanese, so it is difficult for Japanese students to distinguish them in speaking and listening.
However, students learning at the Arabic Islamic Institute in Tokyo said the language had some attractive aspects that they could not find in others.
"It's an Arabic custom that when they invite guests, they say, 'Please give me an honor," said Sachi Akita, 25, a temp staff worker from Tachikawa, Tokyo. "I've found that the language is filled with hospitality."
On the other hand, Shinichi Sato, a 24-year-old part-time worker from Shinjuku Ward, is attracted by the beauty of Arabic handwriting.
"Arabic also has an art of calligraphy. I've found an indescribable flavor in their winding shapes," he said.
(Jul. 19, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20070719TDY14001.htm
The Arabic Islamic Institute in Tokyo, which is run by the Saudi Arabian government, has been offering free Arabic classes since April 2001. The classes started with about 100 students in their first year, but have been taken by about 160 students annually since 2003.
The institute offers the free classes in two semesters starting in April and September. Students are divided into four levels, with beginners classes being the most popular. Although each class can accept up to 30 students, the beginners' class attracted about 50 applicants for each of the two most recent semesters.
When The Yomiuri Shimbun recently visited an upper-intermediate Level 3 class, the second highest level, the students were practicing writing.
Egyptian instructor Gamal Zaitoun, 46, asked in Arabic, "What did you do over the weekend?" One of the students, Yoshiyuki Sato, 26, of Sumida Ward, Tokyo, replied, "I enjoyed having zosui [rice stew]." The instructor told Sato to write the sentence down.
Sato walked to a whiteboard at the front of the room and began spelling out his words in Arabic letters that flowed from right to left.
"Mumtaaz [Splendid]," Zaitoun said.
In addition to the institute, an increasing number of other organizations have begun offering Arabic classes. NHK launched a televised Arabic course in 2003, while the University of the Air--which offers correspondence courses via television and radio--also started such a course last year.
More and more universities have been following the move. In 2001, there were 27 Arabic courses offered at the university level nationwide. By 2005, that figure had nearly doubled, to 52.
There is also a small private Arabic school in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Gallery PoRto LibRE turns itself into an Arabic school every Tuesday night. One of the instructors there is Michiko Suzuki, 60, who runs a bar next door. The school was "launched" when Suzuki's regular customers asked her to teach them Arabic as she once studied in Egypt.
The nation's first Arabic proficiency examination is now under way. Keiko Miyakawa, 35, of Iizuka, Fukuoka Prefecture, whose husband works at the Japanese Embassy in Cairo, has established a nonprofit organization named the Japanese Organization for Arabic Language Examinations. The first test will be set for the end of October in Tokyo and Osaka.
Arabic is spoken in more than 20 countries in the Middle East. It may be unfamiliar to many in Japan, but there are many words that are familiar to Japanese that are said to have originated from the language--such as coffee, lemon, orange, massage, candy and sherbet.
Nonetheless, many hurdles face Japanese in improving their Arabic skills. For example, the language has a variety of sounds similar to "ka" and "sa" in Japanese, so it is difficult for Japanese students to distinguish them in speaking and listening.
However, students learning at the Arabic Islamic Institute in Tokyo said the language had some attractive aspects that they could not find in others.
"It's an Arabic custom that when they invite guests, they say, 'Please give me an honor," said Sachi Akita, 25, a temp staff worker from Tachikawa, Tokyo. "I've found that the language is filled with hospitality."
On the other hand, Shinichi Sato, a 24-year-old part-time worker from Shinjuku Ward, is attracted by the beauty of Arabic handwriting.
"Arabic also has an art of calligraphy. I've found an indescribable flavor in their winding shapes," he said.
(Jul. 19, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20070719TDY14001.htm
Friday, July 13, 2007
Study of Chinese, Korean increasing / High schools lead the way in hope of deepening friendship with neighbors
More and more high schools are offering language lessons in Chinese and Korean, with many hoping this will help deepen friendship with the countries.
About 30,000 students are currently taking courses in these two languages at more than 800 high schools, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.
Chinese and Korean have become more popular at high schools than French or German, the main foreign languages aside from English that have been studied at schools since the Meiji era (1868-1912).
A ministry survey found 553 high schools were teaching Chinese in 2005--about three times the 1995 total of 192. In the same period the number of high schools offering Korean almost quadrupled from 73 to 286.
However, the number of high schools teaching French or German has not increased so rapidly. The number offering French increased from 147 to 248 in the same 10-year period, and the number holding German classes grew from 75 to 105.
The National Center for University Entrance Examinations added Chinese in 1997 and Korean in 2002 as examination subjects in addition to English, French and German, which have been studied since the organization was established in 1977.
After English, students this year primarily took Chinese in their entrance examinations, followed by Korean, French, and German.
"As economic and cultural exchanges with China and South Korea are flourishing, schools emphasizing education for international understanding have chosen to allow their students to learn the languages of our neighboring countries," a ministry official said.
The majority of high schools teaching Chinese and Korean offer classes as an optional subject once or twice a week, and reportedly use textbooks independently produced by a group of teachers.
The Tokyo metropolitan government-run Hibiya High School is known as a fast-track school and both Korean and Chinese are taught to its second-year students.
"I think studying the languages will be useful in my future work," a student taking Chinese said.
A student studying Korean said, "I want to be able to read difficult characters."
"Those who open their minds can grow as people," school Principal Naoomi Nagasawa said.
The Tokyo metropolitan government-run Roppongi High School takes in students that have played truant from or dropped out of other schools.
Since its establishment in 2005, it has offered courses in Chinese and Korean, reasoning that students who found English tough may put up less resistance to languages with a script that does not use the Roman alphabet.
In areas where many Chinese and Koreans with permanent residency in Japan reside, many high schools offer courses in those languages in a bid to deepening understanding between students with different backgrounds.
"People are increasingly learning the languages of our neighboring countries from a young age and this helps foster cooperation and friendship between the people of these countries," said Kayoko Nakano, the secretary general of The Japan Forum, a group that promotes foreign language education at schools.
(Jul. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070712TDY02005.htm
About 30,000 students are currently taking courses in these two languages at more than 800 high schools, according to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry.
Chinese and Korean have become more popular at high schools than French or German, the main foreign languages aside from English that have been studied at schools since the Meiji era (1868-1912).
A ministry survey found 553 high schools were teaching Chinese in 2005--about three times the 1995 total of 192. In the same period the number of high schools offering Korean almost quadrupled from 73 to 286.
However, the number of high schools teaching French or German has not increased so rapidly. The number offering French increased from 147 to 248 in the same 10-year period, and the number holding German classes grew from 75 to 105.
The National Center for University Entrance Examinations added Chinese in 1997 and Korean in 2002 as examination subjects in addition to English, French and German, which have been studied since the organization was established in 1977.
After English, students this year primarily took Chinese in their entrance examinations, followed by Korean, French, and German.
"As economic and cultural exchanges with China and South Korea are flourishing, schools emphasizing education for international understanding have chosen to allow their students to learn the languages of our neighboring countries," a ministry official said.
The majority of high schools teaching Chinese and Korean offer classes as an optional subject once or twice a week, and reportedly use textbooks independently produced by a group of teachers.
The Tokyo metropolitan government-run Hibiya High School is known as a fast-track school and both Korean and Chinese are taught to its second-year students.
"I think studying the languages will be useful in my future work," a student taking Chinese said.
A student studying Korean said, "I want to be able to read difficult characters."
"Those who open their minds can grow as people," school Principal Naoomi Nagasawa said.
The Tokyo metropolitan government-run Roppongi High School takes in students that have played truant from or dropped out of other schools.
Since its establishment in 2005, it has offered courses in Chinese and Korean, reasoning that students who found English tough may put up less resistance to languages with a script that does not use the Roman alphabet.
In areas where many Chinese and Koreans with permanent residency in Japan reside, many high schools offer courses in those languages in a bid to deepening understanding between students with different backgrounds.
"People are increasingly learning the languages of our neighboring countries from a young age and this helps foster cooperation and friendship between the people of these countries," said Kayoko Nakano, the secretary general of The Japan Forum, a group that promotes foreign language education at schools.
(Jul. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070712TDY02005.htm
Students pooling cash to invest in their futures
University students anxious about their pensions or hoping to find well-paid jobs are increasingly pooling their money and forming investment clubs to buy and sell shares.
The entrepreneurial students hope to learn about how the economy works and gain expertise in asset management through investing in stocks.
However, some analysts fear that students who get absorbed in these investment undertakings might end up gaining an interest in money for the wrong reasons.
Every Friday evening, on Keio University's Hiyoshi Campus in Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, students carrying magazines with information on stocks attend a meeting of SPEC (Keio Stock Club).
The club, established in 2004, is made up of 35 first-, second- and third-year students, about 30 percent of whom have trading experience.
In the meetings, senior members teach the fundamentals of stock trading such as terminology and how to read financial statements.
Thirty of the members paid 10,000 yen each to form a trial fund that was established in April. In the meetings they discuss which stocks to buy.
"There's a degree of guilt associated with stock trading, but it's an excellent way to learn about economics," said Hideki Sekito, 20, a representative of the club and a student in the university's science and technology department.
A group of about 10 students at Doshisha University, all novices in stock trading, are hoping to set up a club there this summer.
"Our generation is worried about the future because of pension concerns and other issues," a member of the group said. "So we thought we'd better start learning about asset management now."
Agents is a well-known investment club for Tokyo University students. Its members wrote and published a simple stock-trading textbook in 2004 that sold more than 130,000 copies.
Fifteen universities, including the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Meiji University and Osaka City University, are known to have investment clubs, with most club members investing about 10,000 yen each.
Investment clubs were first recognized in Japan in 1996 and are considered to be associations under the Civil Code. Most of them have established accounts with securities companies.
The number of clubs has increased by about 30 percent over the past two years, bringing the level to about 500 clubs, according to nonprofit organization Aprosis.
These university clubs are said to be beneficial in helping find employment for students interested in learning how to assess matters such as management strategies, areas of potential growth and acquisition targets.
Aside from the educational aspects of these clubs, some students expect they can profit if their investments perform well.
However, Takuro Morinaga, a professor of labor economics at Dokkyo University's economics department and author of several economic best sellers, warns against this. "One false step, and you could turn into a money-worshipper and make some foolish moves," he said.
"It's not about making a profit or a loss. It's about learning why you invested in a certain company's stocks," said Chiaki Wakazono, head researcher at the Japan Securities Research Institute.
(Jul. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070712TDY04005.htm
The entrepreneurial students hope to learn about how the economy works and gain expertise in asset management through investing in stocks.
However, some analysts fear that students who get absorbed in these investment undertakings might end up gaining an interest in money for the wrong reasons.
Every Friday evening, on Keio University's Hiyoshi Campus in Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, students carrying magazines with information on stocks attend a meeting of SPEC (Keio Stock Club).
The club, established in 2004, is made up of 35 first-, second- and third-year students, about 30 percent of whom have trading experience.
In the meetings, senior members teach the fundamentals of stock trading such as terminology and how to read financial statements.
Thirty of the members paid 10,000 yen each to form a trial fund that was established in April. In the meetings they discuss which stocks to buy.
"There's a degree of guilt associated with stock trading, but it's an excellent way to learn about economics," said Hideki Sekito, 20, a representative of the club and a student in the university's science and technology department.
A group of about 10 students at Doshisha University, all novices in stock trading, are hoping to set up a club there this summer.
"Our generation is worried about the future because of pension concerns and other issues," a member of the group said. "So we thought we'd better start learning about asset management now."
Agents is a well-known investment club for Tokyo University students. Its members wrote and published a simple stock-trading textbook in 2004 that sold more than 130,000 copies.
Fifteen universities, including the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Meiji University and Osaka City University, are known to have investment clubs, with most club members investing about 10,000 yen each.
Investment clubs were first recognized in Japan in 1996 and are considered to be associations under the Civil Code. Most of them have established accounts with securities companies.
The number of clubs has increased by about 30 percent over the past two years, bringing the level to about 500 clubs, according to nonprofit organization Aprosis.
These university clubs are said to be beneficial in helping find employment for students interested in learning how to assess matters such as management strategies, areas of potential growth and acquisition targets.
Aside from the educational aspects of these clubs, some students expect they can profit if their investments perform well.
However, Takuro Morinaga, a professor of labor economics at Dokkyo University's economics department and author of several economic best sellers, warns against this. "One false step, and you could turn into a money-worshipper and make some foolish moves," he said.
"It's not about making a profit or a loss. It's about learning why you invested in a certain company's stocks," said Chiaki Wakazono, head researcher at the Japan Securities Research Institute.
(Jul. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070712TDY04005.htm
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Universities not eager for grad teaching programs
Universities planning to launch postgraduate courses in education next spring to provide prospective teachers with in-depth, wide-ranging training number only 21 across the country, apparently reflecting universities' skepticism about the wisdom of offering such courses.
The planned postgraduate courses for those aspiring to teach are a centerpiece of recommendations the Central Council for Education, an advisory body to the education, science and technology minister, made in its report in July 2006, for improving the quality and competence of teachers.
In response to surging public criticism of the decline in teachers' ability to instruct their students and manage other school affairs, the council called for the creation of the postgraduate teacher training courses along with the introduction of a teaching certificate renewal system.
Like postgraduate law schools that were established in April 2004 to foster highly specialized judicial knowledge and skills, the master's courses for future teachers are supposed to equip enrollees with sufficient competence to serve as full-fledged teachers immediately after obtaining teaching positions.
The courses are also intended to train teachers currently working in primary, middle and high schools to help them play a leading role in dealing with a host of problems facing today's education system.
The education council in its report in July last year noted that about 40 percent of instructors of the postgraduate courses for teachers should have years of experience running classrooms.
Some universities have already set up two-year postgraduate education expert training programs. Among them is one in which instructors from the universities give practical advice to school principals by accompanying them while they are on duty at their respective schools.
The 21 universities--15 state-run and six private ones--that have applied for ministry approval to commence the new postgraduate courses seems to be unexpectedly low number compared with the number of universities with education departments where students can qualify for teaching certificates.
As of April 2006, 570 universities were offering four-year undergraduate programs in education for those seeking teaching licenses, including 47 state-run universities that are exclusively for students who aspire to be teachers.
The 21 universities that have plans to open the teaching specialist postgraduate courses are located in various regions of the country, but about half of the nation's prefectures will have no such courses at the start of the system next spring.
This compares with the 72 universities that made applications for government approval to open postgraduate law schools in the system's initial year of 2004.
A key factor behind the small number of universities set to establish postgraduate courses in education seems to be the heavy burdens involved in setting up such programs.
Most of the courses are expected to have several dozen students enrolled, while each university planning to offer the program is required to have at least 11 full-time instructors.
Because of the high instructor-to-student ratio, many universities appear to find it difficult to make such courses compatible with existing postgraduate programs aimed at training research specialists in various fields.
Under the circumstances, a plan is being studied by a number of universities in the Kansai region to jointly establish a single postgraduate teacher-training course.
From the viewpoint of university management, schools understandably see more advantage to providing training to current teachers seeking to renew their licenses.
One university professor who will be in charge of the university's postgraduate course in education said: "Postgraduate courses have so far been mostly for the purpose of teaching enrollees professional knowledge in specified fields of learning. The courses for teaching specialists, by contrast, are for developing enrollees' practical capabilities as teachers, or a kind of artisan in educational activities."
However, there will be no differences in the degrees of teaching certificates between those finishing the conventional postgraduate courses and those undergoing the courses specializing in boosting teaching capabilities.
In addition, it is unclear what better working conditions current teachers will be entitled to when they finish the postgraduate courses.
Furthermore, as a result of mass retirement of teachers of the baby-boomer generation, job offers for prospective teachers are sharply rising, more than 1,000 a year at primary schools alone in major cities.
Given the situation, many analysts say there will be not so many students opting to continue on to postgraduate courses to become teachers.
The launch of the postgraduate teacher-training courses will certainly tighten the relationship between universities and boards of education that employ teachers at public schools.
The universities with plans to establish postgraduate courses have found it indispensable to strengthen their collaboration with boards of education to ensure that the boards will help course enrollees find schools where they intern. The universities also hope to see the boards of education help the students of the courses find teaching positions.
Noteworthy in this connection is that an increasing number of local governments, including the Tokyo metropolitan government, have set up their own programs for undergraduates who want to be teachers, in a bid to secure competent prospective teachers to weather the teacher shortage.
The launch of the postgraduate courses for students wishing to acquire specialist job skills as teachers will be certain to change the relationship between those who employ teachers and those who train them.
Nakanishi is a senior writer of The Yomiuri Shimbun.
(Jul. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070710TDY04003.htm
The planned postgraduate courses for those aspiring to teach are a centerpiece of recommendations the Central Council for Education, an advisory body to the education, science and technology minister, made in its report in July 2006, for improving the quality and competence of teachers.
In response to surging public criticism of the decline in teachers' ability to instruct their students and manage other school affairs, the council called for the creation of the postgraduate teacher training courses along with the introduction of a teaching certificate renewal system.
Like postgraduate law schools that were established in April 2004 to foster highly specialized judicial knowledge and skills, the master's courses for future teachers are supposed to equip enrollees with sufficient competence to serve as full-fledged teachers immediately after obtaining teaching positions.
The courses are also intended to train teachers currently working in primary, middle and high schools to help them play a leading role in dealing with a host of problems facing today's education system.
The education council in its report in July last year noted that about 40 percent of instructors of the postgraduate courses for teachers should have years of experience running classrooms.
Some universities have already set up two-year postgraduate education expert training programs. Among them is one in which instructors from the universities give practical advice to school principals by accompanying them while they are on duty at their respective schools.
The 21 universities--15 state-run and six private ones--that have applied for ministry approval to commence the new postgraduate courses seems to be unexpectedly low number compared with the number of universities with education departments where students can qualify for teaching certificates.
As of April 2006, 570 universities were offering four-year undergraduate programs in education for those seeking teaching licenses, including 47 state-run universities that are exclusively for students who aspire to be teachers.
The 21 universities that have plans to open the teaching specialist postgraduate courses are located in various regions of the country, but about half of the nation's prefectures will have no such courses at the start of the system next spring.
This compares with the 72 universities that made applications for government approval to open postgraduate law schools in the system's initial year of 2004.
A key factor behind the small number of universities set to establish postgraduate courses in education seems to be the heavy burdens involved in setting up such programs.
Most of the courses are expected to have several dozen students enrolled, while each university planning to offer the program is required to have at least 11 full-time instructors.
Because of the high instructor-to-student ratio, many universities appear to find it difficult to make such courses compatible with existing postgraduate programs aimed at training research specialists in various fields.
Under the circumstances, a plan is being studied by a number of universities in the Kansai region to jointly establish a single postgraduate teacher-training course.
From the viewpoint of university management, schools understandably see more advantage to providing training to current teachers seeking to renew their licenses.
One university professor who will be in charge of the university's postgraduate course in education said: "Postgraduate courses have so far been mostly for the purpose of teaching enrollees professional knowledge in specified fields of learning. The courses for teaching specialists, by contrast, are for developing enrollees' practical capabilities as teachers, or a kind of artisan in educational activities."
However, there will be no differences in the degrees of teaching certificates between those finishing the conventional postgraduate courses and those undergoing the courses specializing in boosting teaching capabilities.
In addition, it is unclear what better working conditions current teachers will be entitled to when they finish the postgraduate courses.
Furthermore, as a result of mass retirement of teachers of the baby-boomer generation, job offers for prospective teachers are sharply rising, more than 1,000 a year at primary schools alone in major cities.
Given the situation, many analysts say there will be not so many students opting to continue on to postgraduate courses to become teachers.
The launch of the postgraduate teacher-training courses will certainly tighten the relationship between universities and boards of education that employ teachers at public schools.
The universities with plans to establish postgraduate courses have found it indispensable to strengthen their collaboration with boards of education to ensure that the boards will help course enrollees find schools where they intern. The universities also hope to see the boards of education help the students of the courses find teaching positions.
Noteworthy in this connection is that an increasing number of local governments, including the Tokyo metropolitan government, have set up their own programs for undergraduates who want to be teachers, in a bid to secure competent prospective teachers to weather the teacher shortage.
The launch of the postgraduate courses for students wishing to acquire specialist job skills as teachers will be certain to change the relationship between those who employ teachers and those who train them.
Nakanishi is a senior writer of The Yomiuri Shimbun.
(Jul. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070710TDY04003.htm
Kanto colleges seek Kansai students
Universities in Tokyo are making efforts to attract students from the Kansai region in light of the declining number of students nationwide.
Waseda University's School of International Liberal Studies, established in 2004, will host a model class Saturday at an Osaka hotel. A professor of English and American literature will lecture in English about the development of print technology and media, followed by a question-and-answer session.
The university hopes to re-create the atmosphere of its Tokyo campuses at the event.
The 125,000 applicants for Waseda University this spring were the most for the ninth straight year among private universities nationwide. The university has organized few events to attract students outside its campuses other than explanatory meetings on entrance examinations.
"We decided to organize the event to gain more recognition for the [School of International Liberal Studies]," said Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, general manager of the school. "The Kansai region is a great resource for high-achieving students. We'd like to get ahead in the competition to attract them, even among schools within Waseda University."
The school has received about 50 applications for the event's 100 available seats.
Hosei University held its entrance exams this spring at nine venues, including one in Osaka. The university also has hosted about 100 trial lectures a year at high schools.
During the last school year, the university saw about a 60 percent increase from the previous year of applicants from the Kansai region.
Yasuhiro Hosoda of the university's admission center said: "It's pretty tough to erode the established base of universities in the Kansai region. Waseda's attempt is less like the emergence of a rival university than just giving students an opportunity to look at universities in the east."
According to the public relations office of Meiji University, which will begin holding entrance exams in Osaka next school year, the competition among Kanto universities to attract students in the Kansai region will multiply the effects of their efforts.
Keio University plans to open a research and education facility in Osaka next spring.
Kansai universities, however, are making their own efforts to attract students.
Ritsumeikan University opened offices in Sapporo, Nagoya, Kobe and Fukuoka in June and July, followed by its opening of a Tokyo campus and office in spring.
The university will hold events for university hopefuls in autumn in these cities, making the best of its nationwide network.
(Jul. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070710TDY03002.htm
Waseda University's School of International Liberal Studies, established in 2004, will host a model class Saturday at an Osaka hotel. A professor of English and American literature will lecture in English about the development of print technology and media, followed by a question-and-answer session.
The university hopes to re-create the atmosphere of its Tokyo campuses at the event.
The 125,000 applicants for Waseda University this spring were the most for the ninth straight year among private universities nationwide. The university has organized few events to attract students outside its campuses other than explanatory meetings on entrance examinations.
"We decided to organize the event to gain more recognition for the [School of International Liberal Studies]," said Hiroyuki Yamaguchi, general manager of the school. "The Kansai region is a great resource for high-achieving students. We'd like to get ahead in the competition to attract them, even among schools within Waseda University."
The school has received about 50 applications for the event's 100 available seats.
Hosei University held its entrance exams this spring at nine venues, including one in Osaka. The university also has hosted about 100 trial lectures a year at high schools.
During the last school year, the university saw about a 60 percent increase from the previous year of applicants from the Kansai region.
Yasuhiro Hosoda of the university's admission center said: "It's pretty tough to erode the established base of universities in the Kansai region. Waseda's attempt is less like the emergence of a rival university than just giving students an opportunity to look at universities in the east."
According to the public relations office of Meiji University, which will begin holding entrance exams in Osaka next school year, the competition among Kanto universities to attract students in the Kansai region will multiply the effects of their efforts.
Keio University plans to open a research and education facility in Osaka next spring.
Kansai universities, however, are making their own efforts to attract students.
Ritsumeikan University opened offices in Sapporo, Nagoya, Kobe and Fukuoka in June and July, followed by its opening of a Tokyo campus and office in spring.
The university will hold events for university hopefuls in autumn in these cities, making the best of its nationwide network.
(Jul. 10, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070710TDY03002.htm
Monday, July 09, 2007
96 percent of Japanese high school students use mobile phones
An overwhelming majority of high school students are using mobile phones, according to a government survey.
The Cabinet Office surveyed 5,000 people aged between 10 and 29 and 2,000 parents of schoolchildren over their use of mobile phones and the Internet. Of them, 49.4 percent of those aged between 10 and 29 and 57.3 percent of the parents of schoolchildren responded.
Fully 96 percent of high school students are using mobile phones while some 60 percent of junior high school children and about 30 percent of elementary school children are using such phones, according to the survey results.
A total of 95.5 percent of high school students access Websites from their mobile phones while 56.3 percent of junior high school children and 27 percent of elementary school children do so, according to the results.
Some 74 percent of high school students use computers to access Websites while 68.7 percent of junior high school students and 58.3 percent of elementary school students do so.
When asked about their reasons for accessing the Internet, most of the schoolchildren said they are doing their homework, viewing Websites and blogs, and sending and receiving e-mails.
About 40 percent of the parents of schoolchildren expressed concern that their children may access harmful Website, such as violent, sexual and anti-social ones. Only 40.7 percent of high school students, 43.4 percent of junior high school students and 30 percent of elementary school students replied that they try not to access such sites.
Less than 3 percent of schoolchildren use filtering services to block access to such harmful sites, according to the survey results. (Mainichi)
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070707p2a00m0na003000c.html
An overwhelming majority of high school students are using mobile phones, according to a government survey.
The Cabinet Office surveyed 5,000 people aged between 10 and 29 and 2,000 parents of schoolchildren over their use of mobile phones and the Internet. Of them, 49.4 percent of those aged between 10 and 29 and 57.3 percent of the parents of schoolchildren responded.
Fully 96 percent of high school students are using mobile phones while some 60 percent of junior high school children and about 30 percent of elementary school children are using such phones, according to the survey results.
A total of 95.5 percent of high school students access Websites from their mobile phones while 56.3 percent of junior high school children and 27 percent of elementary school children do so, according to the results.
Some 74 percent of high school students use computers to access Websites while 68.7 percent of junior high school students and 58.3 percent of elementary school students do so.
When asked about their reasons for accessing the Internet, most of the schoolchildren said they are doing their homework, viewing Websites and blogs, and sending and receiving e-mails.
About 40 percent of the parents of schoolchildren expressed concern that their children may access harmful Website, such as violent, sexual and anti-social ones. Only 40.7 percent of high school students, 43.4 percent of junior high school students and 30 percent of elementary school students replied that they try not to access such sites.
Less than 3 percent of schoolchildren use filtering services to block access to such harmful sites, according to the survey results. (Mainichi)
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070707p2a00m0na003000c.html
Monday, July 02, 2007
28 universities to get 260 mil. yen grants
Sixty-three research projects at 28 universities have been selected by the Global Center of Excellence (COE) Program to receive state subsidies as internationally prominent university research centers.
In addition to significant research projects, COE universities also place importance on quality as educational institutions for nurturing researchers.
The plans submitted by the selected research bases are tipped to influence the future of graduate school education.
The COE program took over from the 21st Century COE Program, which was launched in fiscal 2002.
The 21st Century program selected 274 research projects over a period of three years, offering an average of 130 million yen in assistance per year.
In contrast, the COE program plans to select about 150 projects, including the aforementioned 63 projects, over three years. With the program becoming more selective about the projects it accepts, the number of selections will be nearly halved, but the assistance will amount to 260 million yen per year.
Of the 28 universities' 63 projects, 50 will be conducted by 21 national universities, three by three public universities and 10 by four private schools.
National universities beat out public and private universities in terms of the number of projects chosen, with Osaka University garnering seven, the most of any school this time, followed by Tokyo and Kyoto universities, with six each. While many universities whose research projects were recognized by the 21st Century COE Program did not make the grade this time, nine universities have been newly selected.
Kansai University, which was chosen for the grants for the first time, hung a banner at the entrance of the university boasting that its humanity and science studies had made the grade. University President Teiichi Kawata said the COE is a symbol that makes students and professors appreciate the university's achievements.
The university's Cultural Interaction Studies of East Asia by Peripheral Approach, which studies cultural exchanges in East Asia, including Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula, was selected.
Research leader Tao Demin, a Chinese professor of literature, said the selection will let some fresh air into the field of East Asian studies, which have tended to focus on China.
Doctoral students must take two Asian languages, in addition to English.
Young researchers also can make their presence felt through organizing international forums.
Kawata said his university requires its students to not only study, but also play a key role in international organizations.
Tokyo Institute of Technology, which houses the country's fastest supercomputer, Tsubame, was designated as a new research base for Computationism as the Foundation of Sciences, which studies computation for all phenomena, such as the reaction of elementary particles and the function of proteins in cells--unprecedented research that will help to pioneer new fields.
The university has set up a framework to recruit students from various fields and nurture them systematically. The school's doctoral students are required to spend at least two months in laboratories in fields other than those of their speciality.
In the past, students were usually taught by one professor under a system similar to an apprenticeship, but Prof. Osamu Watanabe, the project's leader, said exchanges with other fields would help researchers develop broader expertise.
Most universities plan to use the doubled funds to provide economic assistance to graduate students and young researchers.
According to a summary compiled in June by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, Tokyo University, too, plans to use a large portion of the funds as economic assistance for its students. Keio University plans to hire about 12 postdoctoral researchers, and Osaka University will use the funds to hire second-term postdoctoral students as research associates.
Ryoji Noyori, chairman of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) and chairman of the committee to select COE university projects, said economic assistance to young researchers also is indispensable in attracting able foreign students. "I hope these research bases will be a good reference for graduate schools in reforming their programs," he said.
(Jul. 1, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20070701TDY03004.htm
In addition to significant research projects, COE universities also place importance on quality as educational institutions for nurturing researchers.
The plans submitted by the selected research bases are tipped to influence the future of graduate school education.
The COE program took over from the 21st Century COE Program, which was launched in fiscal 2002.
The 21st Century program selected 274 research projects over a period of three years, offering an average of 130 million yen in assistance per year.
In contrast, the COE program plans to select about 150 projects, including the aforementioned 63 projects, over three years. With the program becoming more selective about the projects it accepts, the number of selections will be nearly halved, but the assistance will amount to 260 million yen per year.
Of the 28 universities' 63 projects, 50 will be conducted by 21 national universities, three by three public universities and 10 by four private schools.
National universities beat out public and private universities in terms of the number of projects chosen, with Osaka University garnering seven, the most of any school this time, followed by Tokyo and Kyoto universities, with six each. While many universities whose research projects were recognized by the 21st Century COE Program did not make the grade this time, nine universities have been newly selected.
Kansai University, which was chosen for the grants for the first time, hung a banner at the entrance of the university boasting that its humanity and science studies had made the grade. University President Teiichi Kawata said the COE is a symbol that makes students and professors appreciate the university's achievements.
The university's Cultural Interaction Studies of East Asia by Peripheral Approach, which studies cultural exchanges in East Asia, including Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula, was selected.
Research leader Tao Demin, a Chinese professor of literature, said the selection will let some fresh air into the field of East Asian studies, which have tended to focus on China.
Doctoral students must take two Asian languages, in addition to English.
Young researchers also can make their presence felt through organizing international forums.
Kawata said his university requires its students to not only study, but also play a key role in international organizations.
Tokyo Institute of Technology, which houses the country's fastest supercomputer, Tsubame, was designated as a new research base for Computationism as the Foundation of Sciences, which studies computation for all phenomena, such as the reaction of elementary particles and the function of proteins in cells--unprecedented research that will help to pioneer new fields.
The university has set up a framework to recruit students from various fields and nurture them systematically. The school's doctoral students are required to spend at least two months in laboratories in fields other than those of their speciality.
In the past, students were usually taught by one professor under a system similar to an apprenticeship, but Prof. Osamu Watanabe, the project's leader, said exchanges with other fields would help researchers develop broader expertise.
Most universities plan to use the doubled funds to provide economic assistance to graduate students and young researchers.
According to a summary compiled in June by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, Tokyo University, too, plans to use a large portion of the funds as economic assistance for its students. Keio University plans to hire about 12 postdoctoral researchers, and Osaka University will use the funds to hire second-term postdoctoral students as research associates.
Ryoji Noyori, chairman of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Riken) and chairman of the committee to select COE university projects, said economic assistance to young researchers also is indispensable in attracting able foreign students. "I hope these research bases will be a good reference for graduate schools in reforming their programs," he said.
(Jul. 1, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20070701TDY03004.htm
Monday, June 25, 2007
Ph.D. graduates struggling to find a niche in academia
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
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
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
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