Against all odds

Abstract

American liberal arts colleges devote themselves to developing individuals who can think critically with enough basic knowledge about a vast range of subjects so that they can be intellectually ready to choose a specialized field and undertake advanced studies of it in graduate school (Murakami 2004). Although Japanese higher education was established based on this American liberal arts tradition, the reality has been quite different from what was first expected; most Japanese universities force students to choose their majors from the beginning, and specialized education based on their majors starts virtually after entrance ceremony. Compared with the relatively successful system of undergraduate liberal arts education followed by specialized graduate school education in the U.S., the higher education system of Japan seems to have been lagging behind, so much so that there have been voices that insist undergraduate education be focused only on general education by postponing specialized education till graduate school in Japan as well (e.g. Murakami 2008). Since the number of children is steadily decreasing, universities in the country are now in a situation where they must implement substantial reforms to attract students by somehow promising a new quality education anyway. Hence, one might be tempted to anticipate that the suggested reform of more closely following the American system of higher education will be taken seriously by many universities. Considering the very conservative nature of most Japanese universities, however, Science Portal (May 2, 2008) is very skeptical, and rightly so. In fact, Murakami (2004) explains how most professors in Japan still want to teach only subjects of their specialties in a specialized, not general, education framework, and this has led to the current situation where general education is neglected to a large extent. Thus, the odds seem to be still against implementing genuine liberal arts education throughout Japan.