Is there something wrong with the Japanese mentality? Is it, as some have suggested, unable to coordinate details with overall strategy, to realize that the contradictions between "tatemae" (guiding ideals) and "honne" (real intentions) or approving ideas in general while objecting to minutiae ("soron sansei, kakuron hantai") cannot simply be left hanging in the air?
Take the recent fuss over three regional universities found guilty of trivial errors in their computerized processing of entrance-exam results. In one case, would-be entrants had semi-scientific careers upended simply because of failure to include a few marks from an exam in ancient Japanese. Academic heads were bowed deeply in apology. No one seemed to realize that the basic problem was the archaic system that allowed careers to be decided so arbitrarily in the first place.
True, arbitrary university entrance exams are not confined to Japan. But in Japan the damage is far greater since employers like to judge job applicants almost entirely by the name and reputation of the university entered.