Comment on “Japan's Higher Education Policies under Global Challenges”

By emphasizing that the Japanese government started to make higher education a core part of national economic and fiscal policies around the turn of the 21st century, Yonezawa (2023) investigates how these policies have been developed, what the main points of these policies are, and how they have impacted Japan's higher education. Yonezawa (2023) is clearly structured and rich in content. The explanations of the failure of Japanese higher education and the concluding remarks on the value of the policies created by the Abe Cabinet are impressive and interesting.

According to existing research (Kaneko, 1995; Nakamura, 1978; Pempell, 1978), since the late 1950s when Japan set the basic goal of economic policies to achieve economic development, higher education was placed in a strategic position for growth. Higher education was expected to train the human resources needed to achieve this goal. In the late 1950s, higher education was treated only peripherally in the economic plan as the “promotion of science and technology,” but in the 1960 Doubling Income Plan, it was placed under the title of “Chapter 3: Human Capacity Building and Promotion of Science and Technology.” The “Report of the Education and Training Subcommittee,” which was annexed to this plan, was further included under the title of “Report of the University Committee on Education and Training” and the “Report of the University Committee on Science and Technology.” The “Report of the Subcommittee on Education and Training” even proposed an increase in the number of university science and engineering faculties and technical high schools.

From the late 1950s to the 1960s, the idea of higher education as an investment rather than a mere consumption was introduced to Japan, mediated by such keywords as “human resources,” “human investment,” “educational investment,” and “manpower.” Since then, though differing in degrees over time, Japan's higher education has been expected to play a significant and decisive role in facilitating economic development and fostering manpower and professionals, particularly by the government and industry.

The impact of economic and fiscal policies on changes in Japan's higher education may have become more significant and considerable since the 21st century, but there is little doubt that the development of higher education was already conceived as one important part of Japan's policies of economic growth, science, and technology since the late 1950s. Also, when compared to other East Asian countries like China and South Korea, Japanese higher education is characterized by its closer partnership between higher education, government, and industry, and especially a stronger influence from industry on shaping national higher education policies and undergraduate education.

It is difficult to precisely evaluate the effectiveness of a specific policy unless it can be qualitatively defined and/or quantitatively measured. The changing economic policies, economic policies associated or mixed with other ideological, or policies of social welfare, and completely opposing economic policies for the last two decades, whether drastic or modest, can make the evaluation and analysis of the impact of economic policies on higher education very complicated and almost impossible. For example, as the higher education policies adopted by the Democratic Party of Japan in 2009 seem to be quite different from those of the Liberal Democratic Party, it would undoubtedly be of greater value to judge how significantly these policies impacted changes in Japan's higher education and whether they have led to the failure of Japan's higher education, as the Yonezawa argues.

Apparently, it is extremely difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of economic and fiscal policies on higher education, especially when no clear proof or evidence can be found to judge the consequences of the development of Japanese higher education taken as a whole. Truly, some trends in Japan's higher education are clear. However, can we say that Japan has failed in achieving academic excellence just because 10 Japanese universities cannot be listed among the top 100 in major global university tables by 2023? What constitutes the core part of the academic excellence of Japan's higher education, and what criteria should be taken into consideration when evaluating the level of the global competitiveness of Japan's higher education? Moreover, a more convincing study should be conducted to judge whether any achievements have been made in developing globally competitive human resources, in what sense it failed, and why.

Finally, as long as there are any indirect and long-term impacts on higher education from these policies, the evaluation can only partially portray the outcomes of these policies or merely limit to some levels or aspects of higher education that are impacted by these policies. Various factors are presented to interpret the failure of Japan's higher education, but it is hoped that a more comprehensive discussion should be made regarding what extent any factors are related to economic and fiscal policies.