The Reasons I Left Japanese Universities

2011-03-262026-07-14

I intended to be a professor of philosophy and became a student/postgraduate of three Japanese universities. At first, I wondered why there were so many incompetent professors. It was not until I went on to the postgraduate course, where professors educated their successors, that I saw why the faculties to which I belonged did not function as education and research systems.

Strong and Weak Areas of Japanese Universities

I do not say that all Japanese universities do not function as education and research systems. The figure below^[1] shows that the percentage of research areas in which Japan accounts for more than 15% of the world’s core papers is the fourth-highest after the U.S., Germany, and the U.K.

This might not be something Japan can take pride in, because its GDP exceeds that of Germany and the U.K. Still, we can safely say that Japan is competitive in some research areas. The figure below^[2] indicates in what areas Japan is strong and weak.

The worst three are psychiatry/psychology, social sciences in general, and economics & business, of which all except psychiatry belong to the department of the humanities and social sciences in Japanese universities.
In short, Japanese universities are strong in natural sciences and technology and weak in the humanities and social sciences. This reflects the double structure of the Japanese economy, the strong manufacturing industry, and the weak service industry. Unfortunately, the philosophy that I majored in belongs to one of the weak areas of Japanese universities.

The causes of sterility

The following are what I believe make the humanities and social sciences in Japanese universities sterile (Some of them may not apply to the current situation, because things must have somewhat changed since I left them in 1994.)

The seniority system

Japan is a seniority society. For example, you must be at least thirty to get a doctor’s degree. Most Japanese professors take a Ph.D. in their fifties or sixties, namely before they retire from the university. In most organizations, so long as you are faithful to your organization, you can get a promotion as you get older. This is a Japanese way of equality, because everyone can get old. But the seniority system makes an organization conservative, increases cases of a square peg in a round hole, and gives no incentive to work hard.

Little incentive to study

The Japanese university adopts a strict seniority pay raise system, and professors’ ability and achievements are irrelevant to their salary. Once you obtain your position, even as an assistant, the university guarantees your employment for sixty years. The university never dismisses them from their profession unless they are sent to prison. Even if they give up their studies and have never written a paper for decades, neither their salary nor their subsidy to study decreases.

Little incentive to educate

Whether professors are good at teaching or not does not affect their appointment, salary, or promotion at all. Let’s peep into a classroom of an average Japanese university. During a lecture, some students are sleeping, some are reading comics, some are chatting with each other, and some leave the classroom midway. Almost no students are listening to the lecture. The professor is just reading his yellowish notebook and talking to the blackboard. As it is quite easy to graduate from the university, students have no incentive to study.

Sectionalism

Students must decide what they major in when they enter university. It is quite difficult for students to change their specialty thereafter. So, most scholars are bound to one specialty for life and cannot freely investigate other specialties. It is rare for scholars to communicate with those of other specialties. That’s why they cannot see the wood for the trees.

Nepotism

Japan is a closed island nation. Japanese universities with long traditions are reluctant to invite scholars not only from other nations but also from the other universities to be their professors. Some scholars are bound to only one university. A newly established university tends to be a colony of an old one. In that case, professors from one home university occupy most of the positions in the colony university.

Political Bargaining

In Japanese universities, personnel management and subsidy allocation are matters of political bargaining. When the university adopts the teaching staff, it makes much of how politically powerful the recommender is and what university the applicant is from. It is not so important how able the applicant is or how many achievements s/he has produced. This is because the university has no obligation to produce achievements or have an educational effect.

Hostility toward Originality

The Japanese word for “learn" derives from “imitate." Most Japanese scholars are authoritarian, and they despise the originality of their younger generation. I majored in philosophy, but creating an original philosophy was a taboo. The professors of philosophy permitted the students only to engage in exegetical studies of classical literature.

So I became a free philosopher on the net

Though I was disappointed that the Japanese university was not a place to study, I still clung to it, because I didn’t know any other way to publish my works than to get a position there. It was the Internet that made me decide to leave the university. Now I can study freely, publish my theories, and have many people read them (about 2000 people per day). I do not need universities any longer. That is why I became a free philosopher on the net.

References