Japan's Universities Are Failing

Being a PhD student in Japan (and a non-native English speaker) I agree with many points in the article. Some frustrating things about my own experience:<p>- In my lab, all of the papers written by Japanese students have to be checked by foreign students (which are mostly non-native speakers). The quality of the writing is typically less than mediocre, with a few exceptions.<p>- We have a seminar every week in which the Japanese students talk in Japanese and will get questions only by the Japanese, while the foreign students present in English and will only get questions from the other foreign students. The environment is a bit toxic.<p>- I have a monthly meeting of 30 minutes with my supervisor (should be bi-weekly but he almost never has time for it). Those meetings are usually about which journal or conference we should submit an article to, seldom and barely scratching the surface of what my research is about.<p>- Teachers who give their classes in English will get many complaints from Japanese students. In the end most of them switch (back) to teaching in Japanese again.<p>- This year I will probably have to go to some sort of job hunting myself, but I&#x27;m mostly considering jobs in academia because of the job hunting process for companies seems inhumane. I have heard of cases where students join a company and end up working on projects not remotely related to their research interests.<p>I often blame myself for not speaking enough Japanese and because of that missing opportunities, but at the same time I am of the opinion that education on the masters and PhD level should be given in English because that seems to be the de facto language of international academia.

I graduated one of the top schools in Japan and went to the US to get a PhD. (But somehow I got patriotic and came back to Japan after that, don&#x27;t judge me.) In many ways, Japan feels like a gridlocked country. And people (especially young) already know it but can&#x27;t do anything about it. I&#x27;ll point out that the heart of the problem is its lifetime employment system, which the entire economy and social system of Japan is optimized for and depending upon.<p>So you wanna change schools? You have to change the system and reposition many teachers, but nope, it&#x27;s not allowed. Teachers are well protected by the Japanese labor law and they can&#x27;t do any other job (and from what I saw they&#x27;re particularly inflexible work force). You want more diverse students? Good luck with finding a good career path for them, because under the lifetime employment system you can get good choices only when you&#x27;re young, and you have to stay in the same company for the rest of your life. Again, many people assume that way and many financial systems in Japan are built upon this assumption. And finally, you want many more competitive researchers? Nooo, because there are too many mediocre researchers that have tenure already. You can&#x27;t compete with them. Again, blame the lifetime employment system.<p>I, too, honestly don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s a good exit path from this. Personally I think having more immigrants is a way to go, but then there&#x27;s this right-wing people and Trumpism going rampage right now. Sigh.

I’ve always heard that uni is a bit of a formality in Japan, and that most career-minded individuals expect to be trained and mentored on the job when they enter the corporate world.<p>Not sure how true that is or if the article touches on that, since it’s paywalled.

I really don&#x27;t see a way out for Japan that&#x27;s not immigration. It might lead to social upheaval, but it sounds like that kind of change is sorely needed. A well executed immigration policy could inject fresh blood into that country.

As an Asian and knowing many Japanese friends, I just said this report is true. However not only universities in Japan, all the universities in asian countries are facing structural problems in college education.<p>People treat college degrees like their passports&#x2F;certificates to get higher positions in society and better works. They are willing to study harder to enter colleges, and then play for 4 years in university.<p>It&#x27;s about cultural problems, especially bureaucracy. It exists in asian blood. People would not like to face the truth, but obey the order. Maybe it&#x27;s originated from Prussian education system and chinese bureaucratic system(former Roman Empire in Asian), and finally cause the failures of education and creativity.

Why would the Japanese look to a London based publication for validation of their rankings among Asian universities? This sort of thing is not an exact science and it&#x27;s a shame Asia (I know India does this a lot) continues to hold the West (UK&#x2F;USA specifically) as some great arbitrator and moderator of the world when they may have their own vested interests about things - and of course vice versa.

I applied to a university in Japan and got in.<p>Essentially it&#x27;s hard to get in, once you in, you pass. Work culture in Japan and school is a bit toxic.

If Japanese universities are failing, how they are leaders in science?

Looks like an interesting article after the first couple of paragraphs, but the paywall makes it hard to say really.

One little-known fact is that to be accepted by todai is not that difficult compared to be accepted by todai risan (the medical doctor course). About 3000 people enter todai every year but only 100 are accepted to risan. Recently as a trend, almost all of the top students in the very top high school try to go there and it is a problem which is considered a huge waste of intelligent people in Japan. I have heard that one todai dropout took 10 years to be accepted by todai risan. The trend continues for students entering other medical doctor courses at other prestigious universities, such as Kyoto University and so on.

According to the same survey by Times Higher Education, Harvard is #6 in US! So why is Harvard in such decline? &#x2F;s<p>As soon as their economy picks up, I bet that THE and others would start praising the virtues of the Japanese education system again, regardless of any changes (or no change) in education.

I spent a thanksgiving back in junior year with a japanese student (along with a jewish bro) in my american uni smoking chronic and covering led zepplin guitar in between turkey eating. Japan needs to send more college students to the US.

I suspect (and I read this somewhere) that all the huge investment in infrastructure (dams, trains, highways) has not paid off.<p>And now they&#x27;re stuck with the debt associated plus the ongoing cost of maintenance.

Anything growing in current Japan except their age?

Why should we need to attend universities? Apart from the inexplicit or hands-on component of technical training, learning can be done via the web. Leaving home and becoming independent can be rehearsed by travelling or taking a job elsewhere. Finding a spouse can be done online. Credibility and commitment can be measured by some combination of IQ testing and sitting outside the employer&#x27;s office (a la Fight Club). The idea that universities will help you to think independently is untrue. They create conformity. Indeed, as historical religious institutions, they were founded for this purpose.