A Note on Higher Education in Japan
SINCE Japan has officially adopted the American plan of education, America's stake in its development is something more than merely academic. The following notes on education in Japan, accumulated after approximately six years' experience with the program, should shed some light on just how well the plan has functioned, and indicate certain areas which are in need of improvement. This discussion is confined to the educational programs in the 7I national universities located in the 46 prefectures of Japan. It should be noted that most of these universities are approximately three years old, having been created under a plan whereby former kotogakkos (high school-junior college institutions) and commercial colleges (in which typing, shorthand, and some other business subjects were taught) of pre-war Japan were combined into four-year colleges with additional schools such as agriculture, education, and others, to help bring them up to university status. As yet, however, the title "university" is merely nominal, and the institutions have been given a limited time in which to become universities in the real sense of the term. The devastation wrought by the war had a particularly bad effect on the equipment of these institutions. The buildings are old-many still wearing the camouflage of wartime inadequate, and poorly equipped. Although pre-war Japan was considered an advanced industrial nation, it is apparent that, even before the war, the educational institutions did not possess many of the basic tools for higher education that are taken for granted in the United States. Classrooms are in poor repair and unheated, and teaching materials such as maps, globes, and laboratory equipment are extremely limited in supply or in some instances are entirely lacking. The general plan of the curriculum does not follow the basic plan in an American institution. Japanese universities are structured on a "faculty" basis, the faculty corresponding to the divisions or departments found in American colleges and universities. The major faculties-those having the largest enrollment-in many cases appear to be literature and economics. However, these terms are misleading, for under literature may be included such social sciences as sociology, political science, and history, while economics includes general commercial studies, business administration, and some courses in general education as well as in language and literature. Ordinarily, the curriculum covers literature, education,