Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:59:46.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of Enrollment Expansion in Japanese Universities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

T. J. Pempel
Get access

Extract

There is a significant correlation between the level of industrial development in any country and the percentage of its population attending institutions of higher education. The reasons for this would appear to be obvious: among other things, more people with greater skills are demanded to meet labor needs in a complicated, highly industrialized society than would be necessary in a primarily agricultural society. In addition, as the economic levels of a society increase, both the collective societal resources to support a massive higher educational establishment, and the individual resources to take advantage of such an establishment, increase in tandum. Thus it should be no surprise that all major industrial countries have undergone rather significant increases in higher educational enrollment.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , November 1973 , pp. 67 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

The author wishes to thank the Fulbright Commission for financial support during the period in which this research was carried out and also Kitamura Kazuyuki of Hiroshima University, Terasaki Masao of the Noma Institute for Educational Research, Nagai Michio of Asahi Shimbun and Michael W. Donnelly, Stanley Heginbotham, Ira Katznelson, James W. Morley, Andrew J. Nathan and Herbert Passin, all of Columbia University. Each one made helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. I am of course solely responsible for its contents.

T. J. Pempcl is Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University.The author wishes to thank the Fulbright Commission for financial support during the period in which this research was carried out and also Kitamura Kazuyuki of Hiroshima University, Terasaki Masao of the Noma Institute for Educational Research, Nagai Michio of Asahi Shimbun and Michael W. Donnelly, Stanley Heginbotham, Ira Katznelson, James W. Morley, Andrew J. Nathan and Herbert Passin, all of Columbia University. Each one made helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this paper. I am of course solely responsible for its contents.

1Mombushō, (ed.), Wagakuni no Kyōiku no Ayumi to Kongo no Kadai: Chūō Kyūiku Shingikai Chūkan Hōkoku [The Course of Japanese Education and Future Problems: Interim Report of the Central Education Council] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1969), p. 380. (Hereafter CKS [69.)A caveat should be entered early on the use of aggregate data collected by a particular source for its own purposes; bias in the data to suit the predispositions of the collecting agency is an everpresent danger. Thus, the statistics presented here should be used with circumspection in the absolute and should not be uncritically utilized in comparative educational studies. For purposes of this parative educational studies. For purposes of this correct, for the figures can be expected to make correct, for the figures can be expected to make the situation presented looks as bleak as it does on the basis of the government's own data, this data source problem becomes a hidden asset. It should also be noted that while the figures used are from government sources, rarely if ever has the government chosen to present them in the same manner. Rather, presentation is invariably made in a manner to suggest constant improvements.Google Scholar

2Mombushō, , Waga Kuni no Kōtō Kyōiku [Higher Education in Japan: Ministry of Education White Paper] (Tokyo: Ministry of Finance Press 1964), compiled from data on pp. 266–269.Google Scholar (Here after WP '64.) A translation of this report is avail. able: J., JohnS. J., Blewett, Higher Education in Postwar Japan (Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

3 CKS '69, p. 381.

4Mombushō, , Mombu Hōrei Yōran 1971 [Hand-book of Education Ministry Laws and Ordinances](Tokyo: Teikoku Chihō Gyōsei Gakkai, 1971).(Hereafter Mombu Hōrei.)Google Scholar

5Mombushō, , Setchi Shinsa Yōran [Handbook for Chartering Investigations] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1970). Interview Ōyama Yoshitoshi, former member of Council on University Chartering, July 15, 1971.Google Scholar

6 Mainichi Shimbun, August 13, 1955; and Sangyō Keizai Shimbun, September 15, 1955 (eve-ning edition).

7Ministry of Education, Education in Japan 1955 (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1957), p. 87;Google ScholarIbid, 1956, p. 58; Asahi Shimbun, September 9, 1956.

8 Ibid..

9 The actual standards established are in Mombu Hōrei (1937), op. cit., pp. 96–109. The original standards can be found in pre-1956 editions of the same, or in Kyōkai, Daigaku Kijun, Daigaku Kijun Kyōkai Kijunshū [Collection of the Standards of the University Accreditation Association] (Tokyo: Daigaku Kijun Kyōkai, 1969), pp. 1–7.Google Scholar On the comparison and significance of the two different sets of standards see, Tokiomi, Kaigo and Masao, Terasaki, Daigaku Kyōiku [University Education] (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1969), pp. 543–47;Google Scholar and Masao, Terasaki, “Daigaku Setchi Kijun” [The University Chartering Standards], Asahi Jaanaru (August 2, 1970), pp. 39–44.Google Scholar

10 Interview Ōyama, op. cit.

11Masaru, Ōsawa, Nihon no Shiritsu Daigaku [Private Universities in Japan] (Tokyo: SeikiShoten, 1968), p. 155.Google Scholar

12 WP '64, pp. 37–38; Ōsawa, op. cit., pp. 128–29.

13Yoshio, Sasaki, “Daigaku Setchi Shinsa ni tasusawatte Omou” [Participating in and thinking About Investigations for University Chartering], Daigakti Shiryō (July 1966), pp. 10–15.Google Scholar

14Ken, Ōgata, “Zokuzoku Tōsan o Yosō sarete iru Abunai Daigaku” [Precarious Universities: Bankruptcies Increasingly Expected], Shuppan Gendai, (March 8, 1970, special issue), pp. 139–42.Google Scholar

15 Mombushō, Zenkoku Daigaku lchiran [Jap nese Universities at a Glance] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, annual) (Hereafter ZKl) gives entry quotas by faculty, while Mombushō, Mombu Nenpō [Yearbook of the Ministry of Education] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, annual) (Here-after Mombu Nenpō, year.) gives actual entrants. It is quite possible according to other figures that even the Mombu Nenpō figures on entrants is below the actual number of entrants. Publishers of the university entry manual Keisetsu Jidai [Study Time] (Tokyo: Ōbunsha, annual) maintain that their surveys indicate this is so.

16Daiichi, Hōsei Daigaku, Daini, Zeminaaru, Keizai Gakubu Ōgata, Shiritsu Daigaku no Ken kyū Jōken Oyobi Zaisei, Vol. 2 [Research conditions and Finance in Private Universities] (Tokyo: Seiyūsha—private distribution only, 1970), pp. 94–95. (Hereafter Ōgata Seminar, 1970.)Google Scholar

17 Ibid., pp. 59–66.

18 Mombu Hōrei, p. 184.

19 Ogata Seminar, pp. 79–80.

20 ZK1.

21 Ibid..

22Mombushō, , Kyōiku Tōkei Shiryōshū [Collected Statistical Source Materials on Education] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1970), pp. 9–10,Google Scholar 71–82, and supplemental data supplied by the Ministry of Education. (Hereafter KTS.) Similar shifts have also occurred at the Junior college level.

23 My calculations from Sōrifu, Nihon Tōkei Nenkan [Japan Statistical Yearbook] (Tokyo: Prime Minister's Office, annual) for various years. (Hereafter Tōkei Nenkan.)

24 CKS '69, p. 381.

25 Ibid., p. 382.

26 My calculations from CKS '69, p. 386; and Ministry of Education, Educational Standards in Japan, 1970 (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1971), p. 240. There are three volumes with this title, or the Japanese equivalent, Waga Kuni no Kyōiku Suijun, published in 1959, 1964 and 1970. The former has not been translated into English, the latter two have. All three will hereafter be cited as Standards with a reference to the year of publication. References will be to the Japanese language edition for 1959 and to the English editions for 1964 and 1970.

27 Ibid.; WP '64, pp. 304–305 contains prewar figures.

28Edding, Friedrich and Berstecher, Dieter, International Developments of Educational Expenditure, 950–1965 (Paris: UNESCO, 1969), p. 40.Google Scholar

29Shinobu, Ōsaki, “Shiritsu Daigaku” [Private Universities] in Shimizu Yoshihiro, Nihon no Kōtō Kyōiku [Japanese Higher Education], p. 146; CKS '69, p. 119; Burn, Barbara, et al. , Higher Education in Nine Countries (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), p.Google Scholar 181. It should be noted that the govern-ment has recently begun moves to pay up to 50% of private university faculty salaries, but such sums will still leave Japan with a very low proportion of government support.

30 KTS, pp. 9, 57–72. This increase becomes even more significant when seen in light of the changing relationship between full-time and part-time faculty. The number of part-time faculty has increased from approximately one out of four in 1951 to one out of three at present, with the greatest jump again coming during the decade of the 1960s. Ibid., p. 108.

31 Standards, 1964, p. 91; Standards, 1970, p. 99–100.

32 Based on data in CKS '69; p. 447, Standards, 1970, p. 109.

33 CKS '69, p. 447.

34 Ibid., p. 135.

35 In 1964, for example, research expenditures in national universities amounted to about two-thirds that of prewar figures for experimental chairs and had not yet reached one-third that of the prewar figure for non-experimental chairs. Moreover, the amounts in non-chair national as well as public and private universities were and remain well below these. Ichikawa Shogo, “Daigakuwa kore de ii ka?” [Does this Mean the Universi-ties are Good?], Kyōiku Hyōran (November, 1964), 15–17.

36 Nearly one-half of the universities in Japan (46.%) have libraries with fewer than 50,000 volumes; two-thirds have fewer than 100,000, a condition which has gotten worse, not better, overtime. In 1963, for example, the figures had been 38.% and 61.1% respectively. Additionally, in many of the considerably larger libraries the number of books has not kept pace with student increases, resulting in drastic declines in the number of books per pupil. Mombu Nenpō.

37 A sharp decline of 47% has been registered the period since the end of the Occupation.Consequently, there are nearly twice as many pupils per square meter of building space now as there were at the end of the Occupation. Based on figures in Jiyū Minshūtō, Bunkyō Seido Chōsakai, Kokumin no tame no Daigaku [Universities for the People] (Tokyo: Jiyū Minshūto Kōhō Iinkai, 1969), part 3, p. 19 for data to 1965; and Mombushō, Gakko Kihon Chōsa Hōkokusho [Report on the Basic School Survey] (Tokyo: Ministry of Finance Press, annual) for years after 1965.

38 Ōsawa, op. cit., pp. 222–268; Ōsaki, op. cit., pp. 145–188, and Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi, “Shiritsu Daigaku no Josei ni tsuite” [On Aid to Private Universities]. Recommendation to the Prime Minister dated May 11, 1965. Reprinted in Nihon Gakujutsu Kaigi, Kankoku-Seimeishū, Vol. 4 [Collected Recommendations and Declarations] (Tokyo:Gakujutsu Kaigi, 1968), p. 117.

39Ken, Ōgata, “Jinzai Hihojo no Imi Suru Mono,” [The Meaning of Financial Aid in Human Development], Keizai Shirin, Vol. 39, No. 4 (October, 1971), p. 15.Google Scholar

40 Ibid., p. 15. See also Ōsaki, op. cit., pp. 167–177, and Ken, Ōgata, “Shiritsu Daigaku Keiei no Jittai to Mondaiten” [Realities and Problems in the Management of Private Universities] Jurisuto No. 411 (December 1, 1968), pp. 69–75. (Hereafter Realities and Problems.) “Debt service” includes payment on both principle and interest. Interest constitutes about one-seventh of total debt service.Google Scholar

41 Standards '70, p . 248.

42 Ōgata, Realities and Problems, p. 75.

43 Having very low grades, being a female, with parents of limited education, low income and agricultural or blue collar background operated negatively. CKS '69, pp. 50–53.

44 Mombu Kōhō, No. 545 (February 13, 1972), p. 4. The class pattern of Japanese higher education is, of course, not unique and evidence is found for its existence in other capitalist societies.In the Soviet Union offspring of aparatchiki apparatchiki apparently also have a better chance for higher education, although economic class per se is less reletively.vant. Gerhard Lenski, Power and Privilege (NewYork: McGraw Hill, 1966.)

45Mikio, Sumiya, KyŌiku no Keizciagaku [An Economic Study of Education] (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1970), p. 96.Google Scholar

46 Ibid., p. 228; Ōgata Ken, “Kyōiku Keizairon no Kadai to Hōhō” [Problems and Methods of Educational Economics], Keizai Shirin, Vol. 38, Nos. 3–4 (January, 1971, special issue), p. 83.(Hereafter Eductional Economics.). It must be noted that while a significant gap exists in the lifetime earnings of those with a university education and and those without, this gap has been narrowing over time, reflecting the fact that as more and more university graduates are produced the value of a diploma per se decreases somewhat. The situation has become one in which, the diploma which was once a sufficient condition for occupationalsuccess is now merely a necessary precondition to such success: without the diploma many occupations and the path to economic success is verynarrowly constricted, but even with the degree an individual's success will depend on other subsequent factors.

47 Sumiya, op. cit., p. 12–18.

48 CKS '69, p. 36. For a more in-depth analysis of those going on see: Mombushō, , Kōtō Gakko Sotsugyōsha no Shinryō Jōkyō [The Circumstances of Advancement of High School Graduates] (Tokyo: Ministry of Education, 1969).Google Scholar

49SeeAzumi, Koya, Higher Education and Business Recruitment'in Japan (New York: Teachers College Press, 1969).Google Scholar

50 Shinbori Michiya, Gakureki—jituryoku shugi o habamu [Academic Background—Thwarting the Merit System] (Tokyo: Diyamondo-sha, 1966) Fukaya Masashi, Gakureki shugi no keifu [Genealogy of Diploma-ism] (Tokyo: Reimei Shobō, 1969).

51 Standards '70, pp. 133–34; 233–34.

52 In a study of the impact of economics on policy, Itō concludes that at least in the ten year period 1955–65 “politics was discussed exclusively in economic terms.” Masaya, Itō, lkeda Hayato—Sono sei to shi [Hayato Ikeda—His Life andDeath] (Tokyo: Shiseidō, 1966), pp. 90–91,Google Scholar as quoted in Itō, Daiichi, “The Bureaucracy: Its Attitudes and Behavior,” The Developing Economies,Vol. 6, No. 4 (December, 1968), p. 451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

53 Kanamori Hisao, “Nihon no Seichōritsu wa Naze Takai Ka?” [Why is Japan's Growth Rate High?]Ekonomisuto (November 24, 1970), p. 16. See also Watanabe, Tsunehiko, “Improvement of Labor Quality and Economic Growth—Japan's Post war Experience,” Economic Development and cultural Change, XXI, 1 (October, 1972) pp. 33–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar