In many ways it’s been a blessing for Japan to have very little in the way of natural resources compared to, say, Saudi Arabia, which has forced the country to invest heavily in its own citizens through education. In the decades after World War II, Japan has built an excellent educational system based on competition: in order to get into a good university, students had to work hard and learn to apply themselves from an early age, which has yielded many benefits. As Japan’s population falls, however, the country faces a new crisis, with the prospect that one day, any student who wants to attend a famous university can just walk right in. without studying. In order to maintain Japan’s academic standards, Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology — yes, that’s really her title — has surprised everyone by refusing to approve three new universities that had applied for official accreditation, a decision which I frankly applaud. I’ve written before of the incredible foolishness of creating new universities in a country where elementary schools are being designed to be “barrier free” so they can easily be repurposed as community centers for the elderly when they’re no longer needed for children. While it’s inconvenient for the staff involved with these new universities, Japan needs to start making hard decisions about its future going forward.
The coming “famine” of students will cause problems for Japan’s universities.
