This is a presentation given by Dr. Hisashi Kobayashi. I have extracted most of the text in English. Please read his original and check his web pages for more insightful comments.
Problems that Japan faces today
（現在日本が直面する課題）
Hisashi Kobayashi
（小林久志）
October 23, 20091) Declining Ranking of Japan’s GDP per capita:
2) Japan’s Deteriorating EducationJapan was a country with a well educated and highly motivated workforce, but not any
longer. English education is disastrous2) Transform Japanese organizations open and global
3) Rapidly Declining Industrial Competitiveness.Observations and analysis:
1) Japan’s industrial and education system worked well while Japan was in the imitation and catch‐up mode, but Japan kept this old system too long.
2) Japan’s leaders (industry, government and academia) did not recognize the importance nor made serious efforts to produce ideas that could create new industry and jobs.
3) Japanese institutions and organizations are closed and inward looking. Many of them do not have visionary leaders and lack the human resources that can create new ideas
and new business. Japan has been primarily good at perfecting known technologies.4) Japanese universities and institutions do not make serious effort to attract and retain top talents from abroad.
5) A majority of young Japanese (men in particular) do not seem to have any great ambition, drive, or confidence. Who are to blame?
6) Japan has not taken seriously the critical importance of Ph.D. level education.
7) Lack of entrepreneurship spirit.
What should Japan do?
At the root of Japan’s closed and inward‐looking culture is the lack of confidence in English communication skill.
a) Overhaul our English education
Assign to every school a native speaker who majored in English education.
b) Research institutions (universities, government, industrial labs) should use English as a primary language for presentations and documentations, and also in meetings.
c) These organizations should hire a native speaker of English as an editor.
Transform Japanese organizations open and global
Require that key managerial positions be made open to non‐Japanese candidates.
This should be a requirement for professorial positions and managerial positions in government positions.
Assign a bilingual assistant to a recruited foreigner.
a) Appoint non‐Japanese (preferably women) for major university presidents, provosts, and deans.
b) Appoint non‐Japanese (preferably women) for director and managerial positions at national laboratories.
c) Corporations without innovative leaders will perish in global competitions. So, no need to impose the requirements stated above.Strengthen Japanese higher education system, especially Ph.D. level education
a) Aggressively recruit the cream of the crop to graduate schools from the world by offering attractive financial support systems.
b) Research grant proposals should be written in English so that they can be reviewed internationally. The panel review board should include many non‐Japanese.
c) Graduate level courses should be taught in English.
d) Offer a course on “How to start your own business” in engineering curriculum.
Non-Japanese should be able to live comfortably in Japan. This is not that easy and it requires more than just an institution, but it requires at least strong help from a community. People do not want to live in a bigoted society even if an institution is perfect.
Inviting more international students will inevitably require reviewing Japanese immigration policy. Many people are looking for a place for study and research as well as possible future settlement. Quite a few competitive people will likely chose not to come to Japan if they have other options since learning Japanese demands so much but rewards so little afterward at international stages. Using English as an official language is good strategy but ultimately non-Japanese must to learn minimum level of Japanese to enjoy life there. For Korean and Chinese, language difficulty they face might be small and cultural differences are not as serious as people think.
‘English native speakers’ don’t major in English education. Not in the sense that the article means (that is really a Japanese English term). I admit that English/EFL in Japan is a disaster, but it always has been, obviously, especially in the modern ‘massified’ era.
I am out of Japan for long time and I really do not understand how bad English skills of Japanese are.
Is it getting any better these days? I thought it cannot go any worse since once it hits the bottom of the basement, it cannot go any lower than that. Did Japanese manage to create new floors below the basement to go further below?
What is the causes of major failures in Japanese English in your eyes? I wrote about “Factors affecting English proficiency” http://ppotato.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/factors-affecting-english-proficiency/
2010年9月28日（火）
何が日本の若者を俯かせてしまうのか？
——ブエノスアイレスから見た不思議の国・日本
http://toolsweb.nikkeibp.co.jp/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/48285
This article seems to be too biased; telling only one side of the story. He himself is not so specialized and has a dubious phd degree. But the take-home message is that some Japanese university systems are creating havoc.
I hope nothing now because Japanese, especially young people, are unambitious. I want to get away from Japan as soon as possible. Otherwise we will be killed by old or middle-aged people.
>I hope nothing now because Japanese, especially young people, are unambitious. I want to get away from Japan as soon as possible. Otherwise we will be killed by old or middle-aged people.
Just rephrase it for clarity: I have no hope in future of Japan, since young people are unambitious. I want to get out of / go away from Japan …
So a question is which age bracket are you in? I refrain from commenting negative about Japan since I have been away from it for long time.
>young people are unambitious.
My generation had been beating up teachers and others frequently and I am not sure that was good or not. I thought quite a few students and teachers in my junior high were idiots with no ambition. I never thought I would come abroad for university until one of my friend told me he applied Temple university in Japan. I do not have any success stories to tell to others: I hope others will lead a better life in their own term. Success and failure make people a character. A homeless man would be happy if he could get a meal while riches might feel privileged by having a diamond. but at the end of the day, they may have a same sweet dream: freedom and free time.
Often “intellectuals” cite that the number of Japanese students are decreased 40% in the USA. But the population of young people in this age bracket also decreased 21%. And many other countries are offering highly competitive education at much lower price and Bush’s policies did not really make the USA attractive. Therefore overall, I am not sure young Japanese are really become less unambitious these days by judging from these numbers.
And there is no need to be proud of “all Japanese”. There are plenty of young ambitious folks who will excel previous generations regardless of the health of Japan as a whole.
If you decide to come abroad, congratulation. But please be prepared to work much harder than you did in Japan even though the meaning of work harder might be very different from what you think. No matter where we live, the competition will become tougher due to the billions of people in developing countries who can individually compete with people in developed countries.