Gov't eyes standardizing college credits for adult students

Japan's education ministry is considering standardizing how colleges give course credits to adult students and certify them to help the growing number of young job-hoppers, women and retired seniors get a second employment chance, ministry officials said Tuesday.

The plan is part of the "second chance" initiative promoted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as one of the key policy initiatives of his administration.

Currently, some colleges provide original credit certificates to students who finish adult education courses, but the way they do so varies from certifying a credit for each course to doing so after a required number of courses are taken, the officials said.

The level of the courses is also diverse, with the target ranging from the general population to experts, making it difficult for outsiders to assess the degree of given credits, they said.

Against this backdrop, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry plans to craft criteria for awarding such credits as part of the planned revision to the school education law or in its decree, the officials said.

But the envisaged regulation would not be too specific on details such as the number of required credits so as not to interfere with colleges' own initiatives, they said.

For example, the University of the Air, which delivers broadcast lectures via television and radio, requires that students get at least 20 credits after finishing compulsory subjects in giving its certificate.

Under the conventional school education law, colleges and universities, except for special cases such as medical schools, can only confer a bachelor's degree when students graduate after enrolling for four years and taking 124 credits.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070220/kyodo/d8nd6jo03.html

Toshio Saito's school for Japanese-Brazilian children in Kamisato, Saitama Prefecture, is equipped with a computer room, wall-size projection screens to aid lecturers and an 80 million yen gym with indoor soccer field and two basketball courts.

But lacking state accreditation as an educational institution, none of its 150 students can get student discounts for commuter passes, let alone be recognized as having received an elementary and junior high school education upon graduation.

None of the five ninth-graders at the school was eligible to take public high school entrance exams given this month.

"I can't tell if we are a (proper) school or just a private cram school. I don't know what we are," said Saito, a second-generation Japanese-Brazilian.

A change in immigration policy in 1990 enabled second- and third-generation Japanese-Brazilians to obtain long-term resident visas to work in Japan. That led to an influx of Japanese-Brazilian workers and the population of children accompanying their parents and those born in Japan increased accordingly.

But many, like those in Saito's school, face difficulties getting an education, which some claim is the root of the problems of illegal labor and rising crime involving Brazilian children in Japan.
According to a national survey conducted in 2005 by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the number of Brazilians residing in Japan reached 214,049 and ranked third in foreign national population following 466,637 Korean residents and 346,877 Chinese.

Approximately 35,000 Brazilians in Japan were aged between 5 and 19, the survey revealed.
The town of Kamisato is an archetype of the rapid emergence of Brazilian residents in the last two decades. The number of foreigners registered in the town, which has a population of around 30,000, was a mere 34 in 1987. In the two decades that followed, the number increased to 1,180, with 821 of them being Brazilians, according to the town office.

Saito, 39, arrived in Japan as an immigrant in 1990 and launched his company, which supplies Japanese-Brazilian laborers as temporary workers to local factories.

In 1998, he established Instituto Educacional TS Recreacao, a school for Japanese-Brazilian children living in the area. His initial intent was to run a nursery for infants, many of them children of his clients, to help them adjust to Japanese society and prepare for enrollment in public schools when they reached school age.

"There is so much cultural difference. It would be difficult for kids to head straight from a Brazilian environment into Japanese public schools," Saito explained.

Children from neighboring prefectures soon began enrolling at TS Recreacao and the school grew quickly. Today there are 150 children, from age 6 months to ninth-graders, and 17 teachers. Classes are taught in Portuguese and the school also offers Japanese- and English-language lessons.

In 2001, the school was accredited as an educational institution by Brazil's education ministry, clearing the way for graduates to return to Brazil with a recognized elementary to junior high school education.

But things haven't gone as smoothly with the Japanese government.

"They just kept saying it's difficult," Saito said, explaining that for his school to be an accredited institution, it must teach according to state standards. Abiding by the government-set curriculum would inevitably force the school to stop teaching in Portuguese and depend on Japanese teachers to handle Brazilian students, he said.

According to the Brazilian Embassy in Tokyo, 50 of the approximately 100 Brazilian schools in Japan have been accredited by the Brazilian government.

But none of them is given official school status in Japan, and only two Brazilian schools -- one in Aichi Prefecture and another in Gifu Prefecture -- are granted "miscellaneous school" status, which is given to international schools that satisfy a number of conditions.

Miscellaneous schools receive tax deductions and their students are entitled to student discounts, but their graduates are not considered to have completed Japanese compulsory education.

Most American and European international schools in Japan fall under the miscellaneous school category. Among them, those approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the European Council of International Schools or the Association of Christian Schools International enjoy special status, which enables their graduates to take public school entrance exams.
But annual tuition at these schools can easily surpass 2 million yen.

Educational institutions without miscellaneous school status, such as TS Recreacao, are ranked as privately run cram schools. Although an average male temp worker Saito provides to local factories makes about 250,000 yen per month, his school, without eligibility for tax deductions, must ask guardians for 25,000 yen per month to cover expenses and tuition.

And those unable to pay have no choice but to enroll in Japanese public schools.

Education ministry statistics show that as of September 2005, a record-high 20,692 foreign students were being taught in public schools from elementary level through high school. Of them, 7,562 spoke Portuguese as their native language.

Julietta Yoshimura, president of the Associacao das Escolas Brasileiras no Japao (Association of Brazilian Schools in Japan), explained that there are some 9,000 Brazilian students who attend Brazilian schools and 10,000 others who are enrolled in Japanese public schools.

But facing language and cultural barriers, those in public schools often experience difficulties adjusting to classes and end up dropping out. The Foreign Ministry in 2004 estimated that roughly 15,000 Brazilians of school age are not enrolled in any educational institutions.

Educators blame the high number of dropouts as the reason for young Brazilians committing crimes.

When 12 Japanese-Brazilian children aged 13 to 15 were found working in a factory in Gifu Prefecture last month, they told authorities that attending school wasn't an option for them because of the language barrier.

"Education is the best way to prevent crime. It's not because we are here that the crime rate has grown, it's because the government hasn't given any assistance to the Japanese-Brazilian children," Saito said.

Japan in 1994 ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obliges signatory states to "make primary education compulsory and available free to all." While the Basic Law on Education stipulates that all children aged 6 to 15 must enroll in school, those without Japanese nationality remain exempt from compulsory education.

Efforts by the Japanese and Brazilian governments to provide a better educational environment for Brazilians in Japan have been making progress. But their time-consuming efforts have yet to bear fruit.

In preparation for the centenary of Japanese immigration to Brazil in 2008, the two governments established the Japan-Brazil Council for the 21st Century three years ago to deepen mutual relationships and resolve issues that face the two countries.

The council, made up of lawmakers and businesspeople, proposed last July that the two governments support Brazilian schools in Japan, improve the educational environment for Brazilians studying in Japanese public schools and establish a scholarship fund for Japanese-Brazilian children.

In addition, a panel on education reform under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a report last month that it should further discuss making education for foreign children living in Japan compulsory.

Watching all of his ninth-graders apply for jobs instead of high school, Saito sincerely hopes change will come swiftly.

"While negotiating with the government for approval as an accredited school, I was told that we Brazilians came to Japan of our own will and therefore should abide by Japanese rules," Saito said.

"I think they are right, but it's clear that in the very near future, Japan will have to depend more on foreign laborers," he said. "They should seriously start preparing for that change."

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070217f1.html

More than 80% of high school seniors have job offers

More than 80 percent of high school seniors who plan to start working following graduation in March had received job offers as of the end of December, exceeding the 80 percent line in the reporting period for the first time in nine years, the education ministry said Friday.

The rate of those who got job offers stood at 81.5 percent, up 3.6 percentage points from a year earlier, for the fourth straight yearly rise, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

Among some 220,000 high school seniors hoping to work, 41,000 are still looking for jobs, the ministry said.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070216/kyodo/d8nan4ng0.html

Still Foreign After All These Years - Japanese universities continue to feel unwelcoming to many outsiders

One way of taking the educational pulse of Japan is to visit the School of International Liberal Studies here at Waseda University. Higher education seems cosmopolitan and vibrant at the school, with a faculty that is 30 percent foreign — drawn from a dozen nationalities — offering a diverse curriculum taught in English to students who must spend a year abroad to graduate. And the dean is British.

As a fluent speaker of Japanese who was the most senior academic on the staff, Paul Snowden was the natural choice for the job. But his appointment as dean last year, the highest position reached by a non-Japanese at Waseda, the country's top private university, was considered so unusual that he compared it to the first moonwalk.

"For Waseda the smashing of this glass ceiling might be seen as a pretty huge step," he told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

Indeed, Waseda's embrace of foreigners is still much more the exception than the rule in Japan.

Few Japanese universities have been as ready to take the hammer to tradition. While some parts of society are slowly opening up — the number of permanent foreign residents recently passed two million, or 1.57 percent of the total population — universities in this Asian superpower remain strikingly homogenous and isolated from the globalizing trend in higher education.

According to the Ministry of Education, just 5,652 of the 158,770 professors employed in Japanese higher education are foreigners on full-time contracts, mostly at private universities.

Most of those foreigners work as low-level English-language teachers on short-term contracts.
And although Japan has finally reached its target, set in 1984, of enrolling 100,000 foreign students every year, the bulk of them are from China and South Korea. That means the rest of the world sends fewer than 20,000 students to Japanese campuses each year. In contrast, Japan sends nearly 40,000 students a year to the United States alone.

Many academics and administrators here agree that Japan's insular higher-education system would benefit enormously by opening up to the rest of the world. They cite such problems as the sluggish adoption of new course-management technologies like Blackboard's, the lack of creative thinking in departments and classrooms, and a shortage of programs for older students. Critics add that most Japanese universities are not competitive internationally: Just three Japanese institutions made the top-100 list in the 2006 rankings of the Times Higher Education Supplement, in London.

"Japanese universities are not doing well, and one reason is because the education students are getting is homogenous," says Bruce Stronach, an American who, as president of Yokohama City University, is probably the highest-placed foreigner in Japanese academe. "They're not getting a diversity of views — the ability to argue and discuss and that sort of Socratic give-and-take with their colleagues."

Bern Mulvey, an American who is dean of Miyazaki International College, which runs one of the handful of continuing-education programs on the large southern island of Kyushu, says that when he raised the idea of starting such programs among his colleagues, he was greeted with astonishment.

"They'd never heard of it until I explained it to them," he says. "Finding solutions in universities often involves listening to the faculty members from Romania or Nicaragua or other places who have new ideas. In Japan those voices would not be heard."

The education ministry appears to agree with such criticism, increasingly sprinkling the buzzword "internationalization" in documents on university reform, and proclaiming, at least officially, that more foreign academic talent is welcome here.

Japan's top campus administrators are reading from the same page.

"Universities have to internationalize for the sake of diversity," says Hiroshi Komiyama, president of the elite University of Tokyo — which employs just 250 foreign nationals among its 5,000 faculty members. "People who are part of the same culture and language can no longer really develop intellectually."

His own university's poor record of hiring foreigners is largely the result of external forces, he explains. "A lot of this is not our fault," he says. "National public universities were banned from employing foreigners full time until the 1990s because employees were classed as civil servants." Those rules were only recently relaxed.

Underlying Tensions

Pull back the curtain, however, and major obstacles to reform emerge. Except at a handful of prestigious academic citadels, say professors, university administrators keep foreigners on a very short leash, hiring them only on contracts lasting three years or less, and dictating what they can teach. Faculty positions in Japan are still rarely advertised outside the country, unless universities are looking for foreign-language instructors. And the few job advertisements that are posted internationally often demand that highly qualified applicants agree to spend much of their time correcting the English-language papers of Japanese colleagues, say foreign professors.
Many foreign academics here say they have been discriminated against: snubbed in corridors, passed over for promotion in favor of Japanese colleagues, and worse.

"I was at a university where female faculty members would get off the elevator and take the stairs," says Mr. Mulvey, of Miyazaki. "They said they didn't want to be alone with a foreigner because you didn't know what was going to happen."

Negative feelings among foreigners can run deep. At a recent conference on education issues here, foreign professors compared themselves to lab animals. "When they have been sufficiently abused or have mastered the maze, it is time to bring in a 'fresh specimen,'" one said. Some have sued their employers for discrimination. Several institutions, including the prestigious private Ritsumeikan University, are dealing with disputes involving foreign instructors.

Nonetheless, a growing number of foreign professors are climbing the slippery academic pole in Japan. Foreigners now run research projects, departments, and even universities, evidence for Mr. Snowden, of Waseda, that the system is changing.

Still, he says, his own promotion to dean has put him under special scrutiny. "I've really got to perform well," he says. "Otherwise there will be this excessive interpretation of a foreigner having done badly, and never electing another one."

Mr. Snowden, who is knowledgeable about teaching English as a second language and has written about comparative linguistics and culture, joined Waseda as a part-time instructor in 1980. Like many successful foreign academics in Japan, he questions whether non-Japanese have always made the commitment needed to build university careers here.

Linda Grove, a former dean of liberal arts at Tokyo's Jesuit-run Sophia University, which has the highest percentage of non-Japanese staff of any university in the country — over 50 percent — argues that language has been a huge problem.

"It was very difficult for Japanese universities to take on people who couldn't attend meetings or read documents," she says. "I don't think it was because they didn't want foreigners. It was worrying that they could cope."

Sophia's school of liberal arts is one of the few in Japan that offer an entire curriculum in English and have a campus that boasts a fair number of non-Asian faces. In the corridors here, English is heard as commonly as Japanese, and doors have nameplates for professors from all over the world.

In contrast, most university campuses in Japan are still strikingly monocultural. The faculty at the University of Tokyo for example, looks much as it did two decades ago.

"Many Japanese students have never even talked to somebody from outside the country," says Igo Takahiro, a first-year student. "It would obviously be better for our education if we had more opportunities to learn what foreigners think and exchange ideas with them. I think most of my friends would agree."

Some academics believe that Sophia could serve as a model of the "internationalized" university, with its mix of teaching styles and polyglot community of Chinese, Koreans, Americans, and Europeans. Few Japanese students, however, speak and read English well enough to be able to function in such an environment. Tom Gill, an associate professor in the department of international studies at Meiji Gakuin University, says his department would like to hire more foreign academics but cannot: "Finding a guy who has a specialty other than Japanese is not easy." Many universities argue that hiring more non-Japanese simply increases the workload for current staff members.

Such claims infuriate equality campaigners. "Yes, poor Japanese-language skills are an issue," says Mr. Mulvey, who is a fluent Japanese speaker and reader. "However, this really is beside the point. The real problem is that Sophia University and the few places like it are exceptions.

The vast majority of universities in this country will not hire or even consider foreigners for tenured positions, regardless of language level, publication record, and teaching ability."

The "embarrassingly" low number of tenured foreign professors in Japan bears that out, says Mr. Mulvey. The education ministry cannot even say how many foreigners are tenured, arguing that tenure is a matter for each institution to take up. "We don't know how many Japanese are tenured, either," says a ministry spokesman.

While the government does run a few programs intended to recruit foreign academics, the spokesman notes that "we cannot order universities to hire more foreigners."

For some, this response proves that the government is not serious about internationalizing higher education or discouraging discrimination. "This is an intensely political issue," says Debito Arudou, a naturalized Japanese citizen and lecturer who says universities are "systemically denying" tenure to non-Japanese academics through the use of employment term limits.

'System of Apartheid'

Ivan P. Hall, one of Japanese academe's fiercest critics and author of Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop, a 1997 book that argues that Japan has put up institutional barriers to outsiders in the media, academic, and legal sectors, says the lowly position of most foreign academics in Japan is by design. "The ministry knows universities discriminate against foreigners and so it lies about these statistics," he says. "Every time you try to nail this thing down it is like jelly."

Japanese universities, he says, have a long record of banishing gaijin, foreigners, to the academic sidelines. The record, he says, can be read only as a determination — "conscious and politically motivated" — not to open up to foreign scholars. It is a system of apartheid that keeps most gaijin "disenfranchised and disposable."

University administrators say it is difficult to find qualified foreigners, but that they are trying. "If they can work the same as a Japanese person, and if they are comfortable with the language, we hire the foreigner," says Takuya Honda, a professor in the School of Knowledge Science at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Administrators also reject the idea that the government forces them away from such hires, and that there are any systematic efforts to keep out foreign academics. "I have no idea what the Ministry of Education thinks," says Mr. Komiyama, president of the University of Tokyo. "We don't consult with them when we want to hire more people from abroad."

Mr. Snowden, dean of international studies at Waseda, acknowledges that some of the hiring criteria can be tough to meet. "Japanese universities are wary of committing themselves to people who claim they might stay but who take off after a few years," he says. "I was told when I became full time that I must stay 10 years or 'we're not interested.' Foreigners sometimes don't stay around for very long."

Rhetoric vs. Reality

Government rhetoric often seems least convincing in universities outside the big cities, where a multicultural dawn looks far off indeed. The school of humanities at Hokkai Gakuen University, in Sapporo, for example, employs just one tenured professor among its 36 foreign academics despite its efforts to build a Sophia-style humanities program. Now the university is in a dispute with a foreign instructor who says he was passed over in favor of a Japanese colleague.

"It's a bit uncomfortable, but management said all foreign teachers should be on one-year contracts," says Toshikazu Kuwabara, dean of the school. The university introduced the measure, he says, because it has had "problems" with foreigners, including sexual harassment of students and difficulty in getting along with one another in campus housing.

"We've had to put them into separate apartments, and that kind of thing is difficult to arrange," the dean says. Four of the instructors speak very little Japanese, he adds, "even after 10 years."
The issue of the treatment of foreign faculty members recently became quite public, and acrimonious, at Akita International University, in northern Japan. Promoted as one of the new "internationalized" campuses, the university had agreed to retain about a dozen foreign lecturers after the local prefecture took over the campus from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system in 2003.

The instructors, some of whom have been living in the area for a decade and a half, say they were led to believe that their contracts would be extended, but were stunned when told at a meeting last July that they would not have jobs as of this March.

Instead, the university told them, their positions would be advertised internationally, in an attempt to recruit the strongest candidates. Some of the instructors were replaced by other foreign academics, but those who were let go find it ironic that, after years of hearing complaints that foreign instructors don't understand Japan and are too transient, a university would dismiss academics with deep roots in the community. They also note that the new president of the university, Mineo Nakajima, is on the prime minister's education-reform council.

"The idea universities are internationalizing is ridiculous," says one of the instructors, Mark Cunningham, who taught English. "They want the distinguished-visitor model rather than someone who disrupts the status quo. It is not a two-way exchange."

Akita administrators deny that nationality was a factor in the dismissals. "We employ more foreigners than anywhere else in Japan, in exactly the same position as Japanese," says a vice president, Gregory Clark, who is Australian. "The teachers knew their contracts were likely to be terminated. We rescued these people from unemployment for three years." He adds, correctly, that limited contracts for all university professors — Japanese included — are a growing fact of life in most countries.

Recent government-led changes in Japan's higher-education system — the most sweeping in more than 100 years — have many academics here wondering whether the result will be the long-promised wave of foreign professors or simply worse working conditions for everyone.

Three years ago, in an effort to force national universities to become more independent and more creative, the government made them independent agencies. As a result, university employees lost their civil-service status, which had effectively given them tenure for life.

The overhaul, which followed changes in university employment rules in the late 1990s, has also strengthened the power of university heads. The Education Ministry apparently hopes that will energize the faculty, by allowing administrators to bring in the best talent rather than leaving hiring decisions in the hands of department heads, who have traditionally preferred hiring their own graduate students.

But the abolition of job security could also pull up the drawbridge behind the smaller number of tenured foreigners, while politicizing hiring and discouraging faculty dissension among newer, younger arrivals.

After 100 years of controversy over the status of foreign academics, say some observers, the ministry might at last produce a level playing field — by dragging everyone down to the same tenuous status.

http://chronicle.comSection: InternationalVolume 53, Issue 24, Page A47

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i24/24a04701.htm

Osaka Pref. to run job center with private firm

The Osaka prefectural government and Recruit Co., a Tokyo-based information service company, will from April jointly run a center for young jobseekers, according to prefectural government officials.

The prefectural government aims to utilize Recruit's ability to match young people with jobs, and hopes to help small and medium-sized enterprises find workers.

According to the officials, the jointly run facility will be the first of its kind to be operated under a public and private partnership arrangement.

In 2004, the prefectural government opened Job Cafe Osaka in a prefectural employment center in Chuo Ward, in the city, which provides employment services for youth.

The prefectural government sought a joint private sector operator for the facility to make it more effective, and Recruit Co. responded to the offer.

The prefectural government earmarked 125 million yen in the fiscal 2007 budget for the project.

Employment services will be offered to people aged 15 to 34, including students and job-hopping part-time workers. Recruit will dispatch about 20 counselors to the center who will provide vocational aptitude tests and individual counseling.

The prefectural government will charge companies to advertise positions vacant with the center. The center will provide the information to young jobseekers free of charge.

"Firsthand information on companies, provided by counselors, will provide thorough job descriptions to young clients," a Recruit spokesman said.
(Feb. 15, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070215TDY04004.htm

Chinese university may open Osaka branch

The Osaka municipal government has started discussions with Tongji University, a prestigious national university in Shanghai, on hosting a branch of the Chinese university in fiscal 2007, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

According to the city, the Chinese university has reacted positively to the offer. The two parties are currently discussing the size of the school, its location and curriculum.

If the project is realized, it will be the first branch of a Chinese university to open in Japan.

Shanghai is the largest economic power in China, and is planning to host a world exposition in 2010.

Osaka hopes to attract professors familiar with Chinese business practices in an attempt to help Osaka-based firms launch businesses in China.

Tongji University, which celebrated its centennial earlier this year, has about 40,000 students enrolled at its various colleges. Held in high esteem in China, the university has a reputation for excellence in such fields as science, technology, architecture, civil engineering and urban planning.

Osaka stresses the importance of attracting universities as part of the city's revitalization process, and initially made its offer to the Chinese university in 2004, when Osaka and Shanghai marked the 30th anniversary of becoming sister cities.

Since then, Osaka has promoted exchanges with the university by inviting professors from the university to host various symposiums.

Although faculty types and student numbers have yet to be decided, discussions are under way to ensure the curriculum includes classes on Chinese language and business practices.

Among prospective locations for the satellite campus are Osaka Ekimae Buildings, a group of commercial and office buildings near JR Osaka Station that are partly owned by the city, and a privately owned building near the city hall.

The city expects the branch will promote exchanges and build up networks useful for promoting businesses.There also is a plan to conduct joint research with Ritsumeikan University and other universities in the Kansai region.

The Chinese university expects its reputation to be enhanced with the move, and human exchanges with Japanese firms will be especially encouraged.

Osaka currently hosts satellite campuses of 23 domestic universities.

Last month, it was announced that Keio University would establish a base next spring to give seminars on graduate school courses in Osaka.
(Feb. 12, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070212TDY02005.htm

TOKYO: University to give new students PCs

Ochanomizu University is to provide its targeted intake of 452 first-year students for fiscal 2007 with free computers, according to the university's Web site.

The move, expected to cost several tens of millions of yen, is part of an information education drive at the women's university, located in Bunkyo Ward.

Recipients will be required to hand the computers to the new intake of students as they enter their second year of study in 2008.
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200702050115.html

Tohoku Univ. readies students for intl world

When participating in international conferences overseas, many Japanese researchers find it necessary to become confident in using English to express their opinions and discuss them with other participants. With this in mind, Tohoku University in autumn launched a new course aimed at helping students to develop the skills necessary for effective participation in international meetings. Unusually, the university has entrusted every aspect of running the course to an outside organization.

The Sendai-based national university started the new course in October last year, holding it every Saturday through December. Two native-speaking instructors were in charge of training about 70 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

On one Saturday observed by The Yomiuri Shimbun, some students were coached on avoiding repetitive body language, while others were told to make more eye contact with audience members while speaking.

During the all-English course, the participating students set out their opinions on specific themes they were interested in before discussing them with others. The two instructors taught not only pronunciation and proper wording, but also body language aimed at enabling the speakers to convey their opinions more effectively.

"It's totally different from the lecture-style courses I usually take," said Fumie Nagai, 20, an economics major and one of the participants in the course. "I believe this training helps me acquire practical English skills."

Places in the specialized course are limited in number, and open only to postgraduate students who scored at least 700 points in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) or undergraduate students who scored at least 550.

Before the launch of the course, Tohoku University also offered another one on practical English, but that was self-study based, requiring students to practice listening comprehension using computers. The e-learning course was open to anyone, with no particular requirements for participation.

The new course has been contracted out to the Kanda Gaigo educational group in Tokyo, which is known for its training in specialized aspects of English. The group runs several organizations, ranging from a vocational school to a school that offers training programs for businesspeople.

The two instructors were dispatched from Kanda University of International Studies, one of the institutions that the group runs in Chiba.

Tohoku University decided to go down this path after concluding that it did not have the technical know-how to help students develop practical skills in English. The university decided that it would be more effective to seek cooperation from an outside organization with a proven track record in this field.

The university also decided to bear all costs associated with running the course, charging no fees to the participating students.

In another case of entrusting outside organizations to run an English course, Tokyo University's Faculty of Engineering has had one language course run by an English conversation school since 2005. Open to juniors and seniors, the course charges tuition.

Takao Sakamoto, head of Tohoku University's Center for the Advancement of Higher Education said: "It's quite natural that we bear all the costs because it's a mission for [a provider of] educational services to support already competent students in trying to develop their abilities further."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20070201TDY14002.htm

LEC Legal Mind U. told to behave like real college

The education ministry has issued an order on LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University to improve the quality of its education, noting that most of its full-time faculty members are not actually teaching.

The action is the first taken under the School Education Law after it was revised in 2003 in line with a government deregulatory step enabling private businesses to set up a school in a designated zone.

The university was opened in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in 2004 by Tokyo Legal Mind K.K., which runs prep schools for bar exams and other professional exams. It is one of six universities established by joint-stock companies following the deregulation.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said Thursday that of the 173 full-time members on the faculty, including 131 professors, 106 are not giving lectures or engaged in research at the university, and 40 of the remaining 67, including six professors, concurrently held posts at prep schools and many on the full-time faculty were not being paid by the university.

The ministry has ordered the university to report on the steps being taken to improve within 30 days. A stronger measure may follow if the school fails to comply, ministry officials said.

"We offer our apologies for causing concern and inconvenience," said Katsuo Sorimachi, president of the university.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070127b4.html

Vocation tests priority at university

LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University, which was issued an improvement advisory by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry on Thursday, has been more focused on preparing students for vocational exams than offering a well-rounded university education.

The university, based in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, was criticized by the ministry for its "inadequate" management of faculty and courses.

"I haven't been called in by the university once since I became a professor," said a licensed small and medium enterprise management consultant who holds the title of professor at LEC university.

The consultant was recruited when the university was founded in 2004, but he has never taught at the school, supposedly because of a lack of students wanting to take his course.

Another man who used to be an assistant professor at the university quit in 2005 because he felt the university did not offer adequate support for academic research. He was, for example, not given a research room.

"The title 'professor' can make you look more important. I'd guess that some of the professors are in there purely for the prestige of the title," the man said.

According to the education ministry, about 100 professors do not actually engage in any teaching at the university.

The university's "campuses," comprising 14 different buildings, are scattered across the country, with the facilities shared with a preparatory school operated by the same company that runs the university.

The preparatory school is aimed at those studying for various vocational qualifications, but the education ministry discovered that in some cases, the university students were taking the same courses as preparatory school students and using the same textbooks.

In these cases, university and preparatory school students were typically asked to sit in on the same classes, but with the class given a different name. For example, the university's "Basics of law" course is called "Preparation for the third-class certificate in business practices" at the preparatory school.

When sitting the same classes, university students would be asked to sit in designated seats in the front row of the classroom.

A junior at the university who belongs to a campus in the Kanto region said: "For many courses, even some of the compulsory ones, the class starts at 7 p.m. It seem like this is done to allow students with jobs to attend classes.

"We feel that a lot of the time the university gives a higher priority to the preparatory school students the way the curriculum is arranged. But that's just the way it is, and we can't do anything about it."

There was a mixed response from students to the education ministry's improvement advisory.
Another junior, who said he hopes to become a business management consultant, said: "It's to our advantage to be able to attend the same class with students who are serious about what they study. I wouldn't have studied so much had I gone to some other university. I don't think the university is bad at all."

But another student, also a junior, said, "Professors here only teach the stuff necessary to pass vocational exams, and don't give us the academic foundation for reaching the correct conclusions ourselves, which is what I'm more interested in."

He said that after he graduates he plans to join a company that does not require any vocational certificates. "For those who aren't interested in studying for certificates, this isn't a comfortable place to be," he said.
(Jan. 27, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070127TDY02006.htm

Govt to keep corporate university ban / Ministry finds problems in schools

The government has decided to stay the lifting of a ban on the establishment of universities by joint-stock companies, currently only allowed in government-designated structural reform zones, due to a variety of problems found in already existing schools, government sources said Thursday.

The problems are both management- and academic-based.

One such school is LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, established by Tokyo Legal Mind K.K. A number of law violations have been reported at the school, which was the first university established by a joint-stock corporation.

On Thursday, the Education, Science and Technology Ministry issued for the first time an improvement advisory to the university, based on the School Education Law, and demanded the university submit within 30 days a detailed report on the measures it has taken to improve its business practices.

Under the School Education Law, only academic corporations are allowed to establish and manage private schools.

However, by taking advantage of the special designated zone system for structural reform--which went into effect in fiscal 2003--corporations have become able to establish schools in the zones.

At present, there are six universities, 13 high schools and one middle school established by joint-stock companies.

Under the special zone system, successful deregulated rules are expanded to a nationwide basis after a certain period.

The government's Headquarters for the Promotion of Special Zones for Structural Reform has been studying the possibility of lifting the ban on corporate-run private schools within fiscal 2006, which ends on March 31.

However, an investigation by the ministry uncovered several problems, including:

-- Schools are running deficits.
-- Number of students are lower than claimed.
-- Teachers who continue to work outside school lack necessary abilities.
-- Libraries have few books on hand.

On the other hand, in its improvement advisory, the ministry cited two clear violations of its university establishment standards that involved full-time instructors and teaching methods.
Of the 173 full-time teachers, 106 have not taught any classes.

There were no teachers present at video-conducted classes, with questions and answers only being possible in about 1 percent of all such classes, according to the ministry.

Out of the 67 full-time teachers who were actually conducting classes, 40 instructors were also working at the national qualification examination prep school run by the corporation that established the university.

The prep school has branches nationwide.

The ministry also demanded the university remedy the problem regarding the integration of the university and prep school.

If the university cannot solve the problems listed in the advisory, the ministry will be forced to issue an order to close the university in the worst case.

The university opened in April 2004. Its establishment was approved only after three months' screening as an exceptional case for the first fiscal year of allowing establishment of schools by private joint-stock corporations.
(Jan. 26, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070126TDY01006.htm

Osaka to offer comedy exam next fiscal year

The Osaka Prefectural Museum of Kamigata Comedy and Performing Arts in Chuo Ward, Osaka, a key base of Osaka's comedy community, is planning to offer a certificated exam on comedy in fiscal 2008.

According to a spokesman for the museum nicknamed Wahha Kamigata, the exam is intended to educate fans of the performing arts about comedy from Kamigata--an ancient name for the Kyoto and Osaka region. Initially, a trial exam will be given on Feb. 24 to determine the difficulty level and other factors relating to the real exam.

The plan follows similar exams being given by local governments and organizations on regional specialities.

According to the spokesman, the exam will be multiple-choice, covering the entire range of Kamigata performing arts, including manzai (rapid-fire comic dialogue), rakugo (comic monologue), rokyoku (chanting of classical stories), kodan (recitation of classical stories) and ordinary theatrical comedy.

The exam, tentatively named Waraken, will include a wide range of questions related to history, productions and contemporary gags.

A few examples of the kinds of questions included are: "Who is the historical figure featured in the classic rakugo story "Tanuki no Sai?" (answer: Sugawara no Michizane); "Who was the teacher of singer Tatsuo Kamon when he was a rakugo story-teller?" (Tsuruko Shofukutei); and "What is the famous gag of manzai duo Kodama & Hibiki Oki?" (Chick-chiki-chi).
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070125TDY16002.htm

Japanese students choose U.K. less

The number of Japanese and other East Asians coming to Britain to study English has fallen in recent years as more young people are opting to study the language at home.

The numbers from Japan are decreasing for several reasons -- a weak Japanese economy, the falling birthrate, the growing popularity of Chinese and more chances to study English at home.

This is one of the findings of a report commissioned by the British Council and presented recently in London.

The study says English language teachers and schools in Britain need to diversify their services to keep up with the changing needs of students.

JWT Education, the market research company that wrote the report, describes the global market as a "growing, changing, volatile and challenging creature."

According to figures provided by the British Council, the number of weeks spent in Britain by Japanese studying English fell between 1997 and 2001. In 1997, Japanese spent a combined 170,100 weeks in Britain. By 2001, the number had fallen to 123,626 weeks.

In 2002, the figure started to rise slightly and in 2004, Japanese spent 135,347 weeks in the United Kingdom.

The trend for Japanese students was similar to overall figures. The English-language sector registered growth every year from 2001 to 2004, following a four-year decline. Preliminary data for 2005 show mixed results and a potential modest decline based on the number of weeks spent by students in Britain, according to the report.

Japan is the second-biggest source of English language students for schools here, although the report says demand from Japan is slowing.

China, South Korea and Italy are some of the other big sources of students. There has been huge growth in the number of South Koreans and Chinese studying in the U.K., although the number of Chinese decreased substantially in 2004.

Despite the slowdown, Britain continues to attract the most international English language students.

The report says that while Britain remains the leading destination for English-language students, its dominant position has "lessened somewhat."

The United States, which is the second-most popular destination also saw a decline between 2000 and 2003, but experts put this down to security fears and the country's tightened control of its borders.

Australia recorded strong growth in the number of students from 1997 to 2005. The country attracts a large proportion of its students from Japan and other parts of Asia.

Emma Parker, education promotion officer at the British Council in Japan, said all of the large English-speaking countries -- Britain, the United States and Australia -- had seen reductions in the number of Japanese students.

Parker said the number of Japanese going to overseas universities appeared to be falling and this has had an impact on the number applying for English courses. Many students take English language courses to prepare for studying at a British university.

She said one reason for Britain's declining numbers is that there are "more and more potential study destinations, and so increased competition."

There are several Japanese-owned English-language schools located in neighboring parts of Asia, she said, and people are choosing to study other things.

"Although English skills remain very important in Japan, people's interests and employers' requirements are diversifying," she said. "Chinese, in particular, is growing in popularity as a language to learn."

Parker echoed the JWT report, saying British courses are quite expensive, with the pound's current strength against the, yen this could be a deterrent.

Parker and her team promote Britain as a study destination with exhibitions, leaflets and a Web site. They also work with local agents who arrange study trips to Britain.

The British Council in Japan is trying to encourage more Japanese undergraduates to study in Britain. The ratio of graduates to undergraduates is currently 50-50. The hope is that the students will enroll for a year of English before beginning their university studies.

The report gave suggestions for ways language-course providers can increase their business in Britain. The ideas include offering exams to international corporations, establishing more links with overseas institutions, increasing English-language teacher training and teaching high-level English for business purposes.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070120f3.html

Unified university entrance exams begin across Japan

Two-day unified entrance exams for universities and colleges began Saturday at 735 test centers across Japan, the second round of such tests based on reduced curricula launched in the 2002 academic year.

Saturday's exams include an English listening comprehension test introduced last year to boost the ability of Japanese students to communicate in the language.

The number of this year's applicants totaled 553,352, up about 2,000 from last year, reversing the recent downward trend stemming from falling birthrates.

The ratio of final-year high school students among total applicants stood at 78.5 percent, the highest so far, and that of those who have already graduated from high school totaled 20.4 percent.

Exams on civics, geography and history, Japanese, and foreign languages are set for Saturday, and those covering science and math on Sunday.

The number of four-year universities requiring their applicants to take the national exams totaled a record 607, and that of two- or three-year colleges totaled 148.

A total of 109 institutions require applicants to take exams on at least seven subjects in five core academic fields, unchanged from last year.

The government began organizing unified exams for national and local government-run universities and colleges in the 1979 academic year and upgraded them in the 1990 academic year for use also by private universities and colleges.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070120/kyodo/d8momg880.html

Ministry eyes ordering company-run university to improve curriculums

The education ministry will ask a ministry panel to deliberate whether to order LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University to redress what it sees as problematic curriculums, ministry sources said Thursday.

The ministry has found that the university, established by a private business in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in 2004, has given its students the same courses given at a preparatory school run by the same company and students at the university were taking classes with those learning at the prep school, the sources said.

The ministry also sees it problematic that the university gives students video-recorded lectures, leaving little room for them to ask teachers questions, the sources added.

The ministry had told the university in writing to make improvements on these issues. In March 2006, it warned the university it may have violated the law, but the ministry has seen little improvement, the sources said.

If the order is issued, it will be the first such action under the School Education Law after it was revised in 2003 after a deregulatory measure that has enabled the establishment of a school run by a joint-stock company in a designated structural reform zone.

Measures the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is allowed to take against universities under the law have been limited to orders to shut down due to legal violations.

LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University is one of six universities established by joint-stock companies following government deregulation steps. It was set up by Tokyo Legal Mind K.K., which runs prep schools for bar exams and other professional exams.

The university offers both on-campus and correspondence courses focusing on national exams for various qualifications and public service exams. The enrollment limit for the school is 1,085 students per year.

"We will wait for the ministry's judgment on whether our practice has violated the law or not," a university official said. "If we are ordered to make improvements, we will examine the order's contents and make improvements in an earnest manner."
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070118/kyodo/d8mneeao0.html

EDUCATIONAL RENAISSANCE / Univ. homework starts before enrollment

You might think that university studies don't start until students are officially enrolled, but recently some universities have started instructing successful applicants who have gained admission early without taking conventional entrance examinations. It's almost as if the universities have a responsibility to motivate the students during the long gap between successful application and actual enrollment.

Ritsumeikan University is among the educational institutions offering preenrollment instruction.
"Bear in your mind that if you don't submit the assignments you have been given, your tutors will have words with you about it after you enroll [in April]," said a faculty member of Ritsumeikan University's College of Policy Science during a Dec. 23 briefing session for prospective students at the private university's campus in Kyoto.

Those attending the event, dubbed "Pre-entrance Day," were high school students and other successful candidates who had already gained admission to the university through special screening procedures such as the so-called admission office (AO) process--an approach that selects candidates using a variety of methods including interviews and reviews of documents.

This type of selection procedure takes place much earlier than regular entrance exams.

The College of Policy Science gave its prospective students the following assignments:

-- Write impressions of three books from a faculty reading list of 80 titles, using about 2,000 Japanese characters for each work.

-- Write opinions in English, between 50 and 100 words, based on one of several passages in English.

-- Write a report about 2,000 Japanese characters long concerning one of several presentations made by students already enrolled in the college. (The students gave presentations on such themes as "designating World Heritage sites and local environments.")

Nationwide, more than 40 percent of university students today have enrolled without taking conventional scholastic ability tests. At Ritsumeikan, about 30 percent of successful candidates for the 2007 enrollment won their places through early admission procedures, and 80 percent of them--or about 2,200--attended the university's fourth annual Pre-entrance Day.

The briefing session started at 10 a.m. with a lecture by a senior university official who discussed what kind of attitude students should have to help maintain and build on their scholastic abilities. He also explained what support the university offered to successful examinees for this purpose.

The university offers several Internet or correspondence courses on Japanese writing, English, mathematics and other subjects, while instruction on the Test of English as a Foreign Language is offered at its Kyoto campus. All these courses have fees, but every year 65 percent-70 percent of the university's total successful examinees apply to take lectures in the subjects.

"We're responsible for allowing them to enroll at the university without taking scholastic ability tests," said Makoto Katsumura, 49, an associate professor who is head of a university office set up to promote smooth translation from high school education. "Even if we can secure excellent students, it's meaningless if they lose their passion for study by the time they are actually enrolled."

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University--Ritsumeikan's sister institution in Beppu, Oita Prefecture--also offers similar courses, dubbed "Precollege Courses." These courses are actually run by Waseda juku prep school at its facilities in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The five courses deal with science, math and even "common sense" for student life.

Many other universities also offer similar kinds of preenrollment instruction. According to the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, for the 2006 enrollment, 222 out of the nation's 425 universities made their prospective students write reports, while 152 gave assignments on specific subjects. Writing reports about books was a requirement of 130 universities, while 81 put on lectures.

The AO process of screening candidates continues to spread, with 45 national and public universities, as well as 380 private institutions, using this approach for the 2006 enrollment, according to the ministry. These figures represent about 30 percent of national and public universities, and about 70 percent of all private bodies.

Currently, each national university can allocate up to 30 percent of its whole enrollment quota to those accepted through the AO approach. However, the Japan Association of National Universities has decided to allow its members to increase this ratio up to 50 percent beginning with the 2008 enrollment.

"With more enrollments through the AO approach, universities will have a new field to compete in terms of the preenrollment education they can offer," said Shigeru Ando, 53, a senior researcher at major prep school Yoyogi Seminar. "In doing so, this kind of education will probably split into two very different extremes--those offering remedial education of a high school level, and those giving a head start on university-level education."

Would-be art students can now phone in exams

OSAKA--Mobile phones are nearly as common as pencil cases in Japanese high schools these days, so one specialized university now offers an entrance exam that encourages students to use their phones the way they would use their pencils--to create art.

For a one-month period ending in mid-September 2006, Osaka Electro-Communication University's Department of Digital Art and Animation held what it called a "keitai entrance exam." Candidates who applied for admission via this method sent images they took using camera-equipped cell phones to a designated university e-mail address.

The images varied from landscapes and portraits to models of buildings the examinees made on their own. The rule was to make one work consisting of six images, giving comments on each one.

It was the second time the department administered a mobile phone entrance exam, with "Expanding" as the theme for the 2007 enrollment. After interviews with the examinees, who were required to explain the ideas behind their works, 21 of them passed successfully.

Before the introduction of the keitai entrance exams, some at the private university worried that the technique might not appear serious enough for an entrance exam, while others expressed concern about how submitted images could be verified as work created by the examinees themselves.

However, the university ultimately gave the go-ahead, concluding that the new method would work well enough as an entrance exam as long as the interviewers carefully listened to examinees' ideas about their submitted works.

Before introducing the keitai entrance exam, the Department of Digital Art and Animation had already administered three types of exams that did not involve conventional scholastic ability tests: the "art type," which involves an interview and drawing on the spot; the "creation type," in which the examinee brings sample artworks, such as digital images, music and animated images to an interview; and the "communication type," which consists of an interview and an essay.

The first two types are designed for examinees who are confident about their own artistic skills, while the last one is intended for those good at planning and presentation. The newly introduced keitai entrance exam is thought to appeal to those who fall somewhere between the two groups.

"Making a work consisting of six images is almost equal to storyboarding, which is necessary for producing video works," said Naoya Terayama, 38, associate professor who proposed the introduction of the keitai exam.

"So there's also a message in this approach: 'You can produce video works even if you've never formally studied the arts.'"
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20070118TDY14001.htm

Kobe U. to collaborate with U.S., German universities on BCP

Kobe University will begin researching business continuity planning (BCP) in fiscal 2007 in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh in the United States and the University of Karlsruhe in Germany.

BCP contains a set of guidelines for companies to quickly resume their operations after a disaster.

As firms must continue to operate to ensure the early rehabilitation of disaster-stricken areas, the three universities will work together to establish measures to minimize disaster damage to companies.

BCP establishes concrete measures, including how to create backup systems and ensure a substitute office or employees. It has increased in popularity among firms in the United States and Europe after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. In Japan, the plan has also been of high interest, attracting many companies.

The University of Pittsburgh is known for its disaster medicine and risk management research, while a specialty of the University of Karlsruhe is disaster research.

Kobe University, which endured the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake and is promoting research on minimizing disaster damage, will utilize the findings of the research on disaster-stricken companies to continue its own business restoration. It will then include the know-how of the other two universities that are advanced in BCP research and establish a system to draw up its own plan.

The three universities will receive aid from the European Commission's science and technology aid project.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070118TDY16003.htm

Britain sees slowdown in Japanese studying English

The number of Japanese learning English in Britain has slowed in recent years, amid signs that growing numbers of young people from East Asia are opting to study in their home country rather than venture overseas.

Experts put the tailing off down to many factors, including the state of the Japanese economy, falling birthrate, the popularity of Chinese and the increasing provision of English language teaching in the region.

The findings formed part of a report commissioned by the British Council and recently presented to a seminar in London. The study argues English language teachers and schools in Britain need to diversify the scope of their services in order to keep up with the changing landscape.

The report by market research company, JWT Education, describes the global market as a "growing, changing, volatile and challenging creature."

According to figures provided by the Council, the number of weeks spent in Britain by Japanese studying English fell between 1997 and 2001, and has plateaued out in recent years. In 1997, Japanese spent 170,100 weeks in Britain. By 2001, this had fallen to 123,626 weeks.

In 2002, the figures picked up again and in 2004 Japanese spent 135,347 weeks in the United Kingdom. However, numbers are expected to be down for 2005.

The figures for Japan were also reflected in the overall statistics for the British market. The English language sector registered growth every year from 2001-2004 following a four-year-long period of decline. But preliminary data for 2005 show mixed results and a potential modest decline based on the number of weeks spent by students in Britain, according to the report.

Despite the slowdown in recent years, Britain continues to attract the highest number of international English language students. And Japan is the second biggest source of English language students for schools in Britain. However, the report notes that demand from Japan is "slowing." Chinese, South Korean and Italian students are also some of the largest sources.
Recent years have seen a huge growth in South Korean and Chinese students but the latter declined substantially in 2004.

The report says that while Britain remains the leading destination for English language students, its dominant position has "lessened somewhat." The United States, which is the second most popular destination also saw a decline between 2000 and 2003 but experts put this down to security fears and a tightening up in immigration rules.

The report found, however, that Australia recorded strong growth from 1997 to 2005, which attracts a large proportion of students from Japan and other Asian countries.

Emma Parker, education promotion officer at the British Council in Japan, said all of the large English-speaking countries -- Britain, the United States and Australia -- had seen reductions in Japanese students. She added that the number of Japanese going to overseas universities appeared to be falling, and this inevitably impacted on applications for English courses. (many students take English language courses before studying at a foreign university).

As well as the simple fact that there are fewer younger Japanese people, Parker put the decline down to "more and more potential study destinations, and so increased competition."

She said there were several Japanese-owned English language schools located in nearby Asian countries and, "although English skills remain very important in Japan, people's interests and employers' requirements are diversifying.

"Chinese, in particular, is growing in popularity as a language to learn."

Parker said courses were quite expensive in Britain, as the JWT report noted and, given the pound's current strength against the yen, this could act as an added disincentive.

Parker and her team promote Britain as a study destination to Japanese students by holding exhibitions, distributing leaflets and running websites. They also work with agents who arrange study trips to Britain.

They are also increasingly trying to encourage more Japanese undergraduates to come and study in Britain, with the balance between graduates and undergraduates currently standing at fifty-fifty. The hope is that Japanese students will study English for a year before progressing to university.

The report identified new ways for providers to increase business in Britain in the English language sector. This includes providing exams for international corporations, establishing more links with overseas institutions, increasing English language teacher training and teaching high-level English for business purposes.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070116/kyodo/d8mmgdvo0.html

Keio University to build new campus in Osaka

In a development that could provide a new twist in competition among Japan's private universities, Tokyo-based Keio University says it will set up its first base in western Japan from spring 2008.

Next year will mark the 150th anniversary of Keio's founding. The move reflects the institution's ties with Osaka as that is where Fukuzawa Yukichi, Keio's founder, was born.

Keio will rent out floor space in a building to be built on the site on which a hospital affiliated with Osaka University's Faculty of Medicine used to stand.

Students living in the Kansai area will be able to take courses through a long-distance learning program using the Internet. Keio also plans to set up a research base in cooperation with the industrial sector.

According to Keio sources, the university's board of trustees decided on the Osaka move on Dec. 15.

Keio currently has five campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture. The main campus is in Mita in Tokyo's Minato Ward. Keio also has research bases in Kawasaki and Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture.

The university also has a base in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward for those who are already working but want to continue with their studies.

Fukuzawa was born to a low-ranking samurai with the Nakatsu clan, from what is now Oita Prefecture. The Nakatsu clan had a compound next to the Dojimagawa river in what is now Osaka's Fukushima Ward.

Fukuzawa studied at the Tekijuku school operated by the Dutch scholar Ogata Koan in Osaka. He later served as the head of the school before founding in 1858 the school that would become Keio.

The site where a new 14-story building is being constructed contains a sign indicating that Fukuzawa was born there.

Keio will rent out the third floor of the building. While final details have not been set, the facility will occupy about 400 square meters of floor space.

Keio plans to set up two new graduate programs on its Hiyoshi campus in Yokohama from April 2008. Students in Osaka will be able to sit in on seminars in the media design program and system design and management program through online learning programs.

The Osaka base will also encourage joint research endeavors with companies in the Kansai area.
Keio sources said there were also plans to use the facility for Keio's business school.

Keio officials said the move to Osaka was made to honor the birthplace of the university's founder.

"We do not yet foresee strategic elements related to competition among private universities," said one Keio official.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200701170186.html

Rented campuses to be permitted

In an easing of the regulation that obliges private universities to have ownership of their land and buildings, the government likely will permit educational corporations to establish universities using leased land and buildings, sources said.

The deregulation is aimed at supporting local governments hoping to attract private universities.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry will adopt the new regulation for applications to establish universities in the 2007 academic year, according to the sources.

The deregulation to allow leased land and buildings for schools will be implemented nationwide, as it is currently only applied to special deregulation zones, including Tokyo's Chiyoda and Shinjuku wards.

The government plans to rule that contracts for land and buildings leaseholds should be about 20 years to ensure the stable management of educational institutions over a long period, according to the sources.

At present, educational corporations have to purchase land and buildings when establishing universities and such a heavy financial burden has caused corporations to lose interest in opening universities or establishing new departments, hindering the efforts of local governments to attract new schools.

With rented accommodation, the establishment of universities in areas where the cost of land and buildings is very high, such as central Tokyo, will become significantly easier than it is now.
(Jan. 13, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070113TDY03004.htm