Shinichi Terada's implication in his Aug. 17 article, "Rural universities feel pinch of lower enrollments," that the economic troubles of many Japanese universities might be alleviated by applying more market-friendly approaches to their institutional structures and courses of study indicates a frightening trend. For, as the institutional focus is shifted from catering to the needs of the students to catering to corporate sponsors, the quality of higher education in Japan will suffer greatly.
The glib remark by Kirk R. Patterson (dean of Temple University, Japan campus) that "Universities [in Japan] can no longer try to meet the needs of all students" outlines the fact that Japan's system of higher education is in serious need of revision. Nevertheless, forfeiting the academic interests of the students in deference to corporate funding places the fate of Japanese higher education in the indelicate hands of the marketplace.
Japanese higher education administrators should certainly think twice before they relinquish their rights to academic autonomy and allow the Japanese university to become another lackey to the corporate ogre.