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Japan Times
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Dec 26, 2001

Reforms shake higher education's foundations

Scholars at Japan's universities have long been criticized for enjoying "splendid isolation" within their ivory towers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2013

English part of equation for science students

Even as Japan was praised for its English presentations during the bidding process to host the 2020 Olympic Games in September, it is no secret that Japanese are still said to be poor at communicating in English.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Internationalization of Japanese Universities
Oct 22, 2018

Government aims for 300,000 international students

Japanese universities are racing to attract international students to raise competitiveness among their ranks, as well as their global counterparts. The government is also taking steps to help them.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 25, 2014

Funding higher education

The percentage of Japanese high school graduates entering university is not growing as fast as one would expect. It is well below the average ratio for the 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012

More crucial than English

On Nov. 21, 2011, the Government Revitalization Unit (GRU) took up the issue of reform of Japan's university system. Five themes were presented by GRU members:
COMMENTARY
Jun 5, 2006

Japan's college gap growing

In the two years since Japanese national universities were reorganized into independent administrative corporations, government grants for their operating expenses (personnel and equipment costs) have been slashed by 1 percent each year.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2001

Colleges brace as fewer apply

Tadataka Koide, president of Aichi Gakuin University in Nagoya, is awaiting this month's entrance exams with anticipation and anxiety.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2017

Higher education keeps overreaching

Since the mid-2000s, the number of Japanese people who turn 18 in a given year has remained constant at about 1.2 million. That will change with the high school graduating class of 2018, which will be smaller than the class of 2017.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2009

'Exam hell' now not so hot

The annual university entrance examination season kicked off Saturday and Sunday as some 540,000 high school students and graduates nationwide took the standardized National Center Test for University Admissions.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2007

School tinkering that hurts

The education ministry is pushing university reform based on a U.S. model. As I wrote in April, the ministry in 1990 introduced a policy of sharply expanding graduate school admission quotas. In the next year, it relaxed undergraduate restrictions in graduate-level liberal-arts programs, allowing even...
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2005

University gap set to widen

One year has passed since Japan's national universities gained corporate status. How have they changed? Following are my personal views on the merits and demerits of some of the changes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Top Global Universities in Japan
Oct 5, 2020

Top Global University Project for a brighter future

Japan has long had a reputation for impenetrability and separation from the outside world. However, this is changing rapidly in a number of ways. One example is the university system, which is quickly shifting to a globalized footing, becoming home to emerging international powerhouses in academia.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 12, 2013

Higher-education stimulus would be sure bet for Japan

Making Japanese universities global as well as world class requires generous support not only for hiring foreigners but also — and far more importantly — for improving conditions for all faculty.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2012

Improving university education

Education Minister Makiko Tanaka, who ignored the proper procedure, bears heavy responsibility for the recent confusion over the approval of the opening of three new universities. But apart from her problematic behavior, she has raised some valid points. It is high time that the education ministry made...
EDITORIALS
Nov 8, 2012

Ms. Tanaka's irrational decision

On Nov. 2, education minister Makiko Tanaka overturned the recommendations made the previous day by a ministry advisory body and decided not to approve the opening of three new universities in fiscal 2013.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 30, 2008

Foreign university faculty face annual round of 'musical jobs'

Universities in Japan force most of their foreign instructors to play an unnerving version of musical chairs. Every year the music starts and instructors with expiring contracts scramble for an opening at a new school. University administrators force teachers to play "musical jobs" by offering limited-term...
COMMENTARY
Feb 1, 2004

Paying more for education

LONDON -- Last week the Labour Party government of Prime Minister Tony Blair just barely won a vote in the House of Commons on the payment of "top-up" fees at British universities. The government had failed to consult widely in the Labour Party before announcing its policy on fees, and this was one reason...
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2003

Temple seeks special-zone status to ease its regulatory binds

Temple University Japan is seeking government designation as a special deregulation zone entity in a bid to make itself more attractive to students, according to its dean.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2003

More support urged for foreign students

The government and universities need to improve the support system and quality of education for the increasing number of foreign students in Japan, an advisory panel of the education ministry said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 20, 2020

When international students pose a very real risk

Recent issues between the United States and China can show Japan how best to approach new arrivals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Internationalization of Japanese Universities
Oct 22, 2018

Changing practices increase options for foreign students

The number of Japanese universities offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses that can be completed totally or partially in English is increasing every year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 30, 2010

A foreigner-friendly field of dreams?

In the 1989 Oscar-nominated fantasy-drama film "Field of Dreams," the main character, a farmer played by Kevin Costner, heard a voice that kept whispering the phrase "If you build it, he will come." The Voice urged Costner's character to take a leap of faith and build a baseball diamond in the middle...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2009

Soft power beckons as time comes for academia to act sustainably

As I am for the most part an optimist, it seems only right to kick off 2009 with an upbeat column and, as an educator, one area I believe offers great promise is education.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2010

Japan's stingy approach to schools has not paid off

According to the World University Rankings 2010-2011, published by the Times Higher Education on Sept. 16, the number of Japanese universities ranking among the world's top 200 dwindled to five from 11 the previous year.
People visit Semicon China, a trade fair for semiconductor technology, in Shanghai in 2021
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2023

China quietly hires overseas chip talent as U.S. tightens curbs

The revamped recruitment drive is said to offer perks including home-purchase subsidies and typical signing bonuses of $420,000 to $700,000.
A student walks across campus at the University of Sydney.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 27, 2024

Australia decides to cap foreign students in bid to curb migration

Australia is just the latest country to crack down on international students over migration concerns.
A robotics company’s research and development center in Shenzhen. Chinese firms struggle to attract the private equity and venture capital funds that U.S. companies enjoy.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2024

China needs a better innovation ecosystem

Chinese firms struggle to attract the private equity and venture capital funds that U.S. companies enjoy, putting a damper on their ability to innovate.
Attendees at the Leap technology conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 6, 202. The oil-rich country is plowing money into glitzy events, computing power and artificial intelligence research, putting it in the middle of an escalating U.S.-China struggle for technological influence.
WORLD / Politics
May 2, 2024

‘To the future’: Saudi Arabia spends big to become an AI superpower

Saudi Arabia was long a financial spigot for tech, but is now building its own industry.
Members of the Kokugakuin University ōendan cheer group perform during a competition between university cheerleading squads in Tokyo on June 3.
SPORTS
Jul 23, 2023

Japan's macho cheerleaders fight to save a tradition

Dressed in old-fashioned, school-style uniforms, cheering squads are a mass of black at college baseball games as they shout out chants and bang taiko drums.
What role should money from oil and gas — the very industry that’s the main contributor to global warming — have in funding the work of climate scientists?
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Mar 4, 2024

Two young climate scientists. Two visions of the solution.

The pair's biggest question: What role should money from oil and gas have in funding work like theirs?

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?