Global Development

The Professional Training Colleges and Colleges of Technology

During the 1960s even as junior colleges were being established, a movement to include yet another category of institutions as part of the higher education system was well underway. These were specialized technical schools to educate and train engineers and other technologically skilled personnel for Japan’s growing industrial economy. Thus in 1962, the five-year technical school system was launched to provide training in specialized fields including engineering construction and maritime technologies. These five-year technical schools, established within nearly every prefecture, were expected to play an important part in economic revitalizing local communities. As described earlier these institutions called colleges of technology, accept students who complete lower secondary schools, the equivalent of intermediate or middle schools, and offer intensive five-year programs of vocational-technical education.

This was not all. By the mid-1970s the industrial structure of Japan was transforming from heavy industry to high technology, and increasing demand for high-technology workforce outstripped the capacities of the existing universities and colleges to produce them. Therefore, in 1975, the School Education Law was once again amended to set and clarify standards for establishing and maintaining college-level specialized training institutions as part of the higher education system.

Under the revised legislation, professional or specialized training colleges were authorized. These are defined as colleges which provide 800 hours or more technical education a year to high school graduates in fields of industrial science, agriculture, medical care, health maintenance, education and social welfare and practical business. The normal training period in a specialized training college is two to three years, depending on the field. Currently students who complete over 1,700 hours within a period of two years or more, and who graduated in or subsequent to 1996, may be granted “specialist degrees”(senmon-shi) which are deemed equivalent to the associate degrees earned by junior college graduates. Furthermore, graduates with these specialized degrees are eligible to apply for admission to the upper division universities. The level of certification authorized for specialized training colleges is now raised to include baccalaureate degree (gaku-shi) for those fulfilling additional requirements specified through the National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation.

Universal Higher Education

The historical development of higher education system in Japan parallels that of American higher education in many ways. In both countries, the twentieth century witnessed the democratization of higher education. Both countries now have an extensive and overlapping networks of public and private universities, four, three and two year colleges and a variety of vocational-technical institutions each claiming its place under the sun.

Dr. Akito Arima, the former Minister of Education and former President of the University of Tokyo in his lecture on the future of higher education in Japan given at the United Nations University in December 2002, stated that both the United States and Japan have entered the stage of universal higher education. According to the theory of American educator Martin Trow, a ratio of enrollment to college age students up to15 percent marks the elite stage of higher education, 15-50 percent as the popularization stage, and over 50 percent marks the stage of universal higher education. Whether or not universal higher education, in and of itself, is in the best interest of a country is an issue that Dr. Arima seems to challenge his country to reflect on.

It is important to note that universal higher education in Japan exists within a firmly ingrained pattern of institutional hierarchy which is reinforced by societal attitudes and behaviors. While the “pecking order” among institutions of higher education is found in other countries, in Japan the unquestioned reverence given to the “elite” universities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto Universities or to the historically well-known private universities such as Waseda and Keio, resembles a mixture of religious veneration and commercial brand-name worship.

The hierarchy in Japanese higher education is perpetuated and reinforced by prevalent practice of tracking and screening students into various narrow education pathways. Competition for university entrance can begin as early as pre-school and kindergarten. Many children are sent after schools and on weekends to supplemental preparatory schools (juku) and are drilled and coached to pass the highly competitive entrance examinations for seats in selectively “elite” kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school, all of which form set pathway for placement within the educational pyramid. Most “juku” are for-profit business enterprises, and these are often referred to as the “other educational system” of Japan. There is even a hierarchy within the juku business based on the rates of entrance of their students into the “top” schools and universities.
Current Realities

Sixty years after the end of the world war that changed Japan, the country is once again facing a period of major changes in all aspects of its national life. The people that experienced the war, the defeat, and its aftermath are passing away. The once robust economy built out of the ashes of war seems to be tired and worn out. The usually quiet and somewhat apolitical populace is awakening to the reality of having to confront some fundamental issues facing them, such as Japan’s national identity, its place and role in the global society, and thorny internal problems ranging from constitutional revision to the revamping of the massive governmental bureaucracies.

Demographic profile poses further concerns. Total fertility rate is predicted to fall below one percent by the year 2010 if current trend continues. Continuing increase in the 65-years and older population with concomitant decrease in the very young (0-14years old) and in the mid-age levels is prompting questions about the future capacity of the country to support itself.

The burst of the economic bubble forced changes in the traditionally valued business practices such life long employment. There are also significant changes in attitudes of young people toward education and work. Even though there are greater opportunities and more options for higher education than ever before, many young people are choosing not to follow the expected rites of adulthood through entering in higher education or training, and then settling into a job. “Freeters” (those who by choice are living on part-time and frequently changing jobs) and “NEET” (Not in Employment or Education) confound and frustrate parents and the country as a whole.

Educational Reforms

Within this unsettling environment, educational reform efforts are moving along at a pace set by the national agenda of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. High on the current national agenda for higher educational reform appear to be the “privatization” of national universities and strengthening graduate education. Very little attention seems to be given to the junior colleges per se, even though it is this sector of Japanese higher education that faces the heaviest pressure of survival.

Higher education in Japan has always been a nationally managed enterprise. Both public and private institutions of all types are expected to adhere to the very prescriptive rules for starting up of institutions, as well as for subsequent changes or developments in academic programs and curricula. Operational matters such as the setting of enrollments targets, and numbers and qualifications of faculty also require ministry approval. It is not possible, for example, for a junior college to alter its scope and nature of offerings to meet local needs or to build its enrollment without going through time-consuming approval process of the central ministry.

It is being said that as part of recent reform efforts, the central government may be relaxing its tight hold over universities and colleges, and may be promoting greater local responsibility. .

The “Incorporation of the National Universities” or “houjinka”, loosely translated as “privatization”, implemented in July 2003, may be a case in point. This “hojinka” legislation delegates greater power and responsibility for institutional management to the chief executive officer (president) and expands the participation of outside members to the executive committee of each university. The “houjinka” also introduces the concepts of competition, institutional accountability, self-improvement through third-party evaluation (accreditation), and significantly changes the employment status of faculty and administrative staff from being governmental employees (“koumuin”) to that of university employees.

It is interesting to observe that such action for less governmental control is viewed with both hope and apprehension by the higher educational community. It appears that while many educators often complain about the centralized control and the lack of flexibility, there also seems to be an acceptance or even a comfortable dependency on this paternalism as a “security blanket”

While the “houjinka” reform applies currently to the national universities, it is expected that the principle of “local autonomy and responsibility” will trickle down to other public higher educational entities including the junior colleges and the publicly funded professional training colleges.

In terms of implementing the provision for third party accreditation, due credit needs to be given to the leadership of the Japan Private Junior College Association who took the initiative to formulate and implement a comprehensive accreditation system which includes processes of institutional self study and third party visitations which began in fall 2005. This initiative was carried out in collaboration with the U.S. accreditation associations.

The Tale of Three Institutions

This section will feature three institutions as sample case studies of what is happening to the “community colleges” in present day Japan. One of the institutions capitalized and expanded on its vocational education mission, the second chose to discontinue its original identity and role as a junior college, and the third became an integral component of a consolidated mega-university system. The three institutions described are the Jikei Educational Group, the Hakuoh Women’s Junior College, and the Tokyo Metropolitan College of Allied Medical Sciences

The Jikei Group

In response to the increasing demand for a highly trained and solidly educated technical workforce, the 1976 amendment to the School Education Law formally authorized and set standards for professional training colleges, also referred to as specialized training colleges, as part of the higher education system of Japan. The Jikei Educational Group (Jikei Group for short), is an thriving example of this category of colleges.

The Jikei Group is a private system of professional training colleges comprised of 35 separate colleges enrolling over 25,000 students throughout Japan. It is an educational enterprise that fully capitalizes on its core mission of vocational education, and adds to it the vital elements of humanistic and global education. Its founder, Dr. Kunihiko Ukifune says:
Our Group has three basic educational policies. The first is practical education aimed at acquiring the knowledge and techniques necessary to be competitive and successful in the business world. The second is humanistic education aimed at developing our students’ character so that they can have interpersonal communication skills and teamwork skills both of which are indispensable for the workplace. The third is global education aimed at raising our students’ understanding and access to various values, and at the same time building their identities as Japanese. We put these policies into action in our schools. We have had active partnerships with institutions worldwide including the United States, Canada, China, Australia and some European countries with student and faculty exchanges. For example, the “Semester in Japan” program with the University of West Florida has been taking place every summer since 1991. Jikes is a board member of Community Colleges for International Development (CCID).
The Jikei Group began in 1976 with the establishment of the Shin-Osaka Dental Technician Academy, which was subsequently renamed Shin-Osaka Dental Technician College. This was rapidly followed by the opening in 1978 of two more colleges, the Osaka College of Medical Technology and the Tokyo College of Medico-Pharmaco Technology for training of paramedical technicians in the two greater metropolitan regions of eastern and western Japan. The growth and development of Jikei colleges and programs, strategically located throughout Japan, continue to this day. Its vast program offerings include for example, Biotechnology which covers a vide field including fermentation (for rice wine, miso, soy sauce production) to DNA protein analysis; training of clinical engineers to operate and service life-support equipment; para-medics training; Speech-Language-Hearing Therapy; Acupuncture and Moxibustion; Pet Business; Animal Care; Hairdresser, Make-up Artists and Aestheticians training; Animation and Multi-Media Art; Performing and Broadcasting Arts and Professional Musician training. The most recently opened colleges in include a Film School, and a College of Patisserie. (Refer to The Jikei Group web-page http://www.jikeigroup.net for the names and locations of all of the Jikei Group institutions)

The Jikei Educational Group is supported by the Jikei Co. Ltd and other associated company groups within the system whose main functions are to provide operational, technical, and service support to the colleges and to the students. For example, the associated companies, the Jikei Space, Inc. provides management and maintenance support services for all the college buildings including dormitories; and the Brain Staff Consultants (BSC) is in charge of the computer systems of the entire Group.

A board of directors headed by the Chairman and CEO, Dr. Kunihiko Ukifune governs the organization. The Colleges are headed by Executive Directors who are the chief operating officers of the organization. The colleges’ administrators and faculty are selected on the basis of their professional expertise and accomplishments, and are given wide latitude of responsibility in the academic and training operations of the respective colleges.

Dr. Kunihiko Ukifune, the charismatic founder of the Jikei group is a sharp and pragmatic businessman whose credentials include an honorary doctorate in international education from the University of West Florida. When asked about the uniqueness of the Jikei Group, he replied:

First of all, we have a cooperative system with business and industry. Students tackle tasks from real companies, and user evaluate their work. We also have another system called the “major educational system” which allows students to find out for themselves which course of study is most suitable for them. We are committed to structuring curriculum for each individual rather than having exactly the same for everyone. Each college makes an effort to let students know about the real conditions and practices in each field of specialization, while at the same time nurturing student’s hopes and dreams, and helping them to become professionals in their chosen fields.
He further comments on Jikei’s uniqueness:
The Group operates with the aim to realize the four trusts: trust from the students and their guardians; the trust from the high schools; the trust from the business world; and the trust from the local community. We repeatedly emphasize the importance of vocation-focused education, the preparation of syllabus and curriculum to suit the objective, and collaborative work with business world into which students will enter. In the area of design or music, for examples, the given business or enterprise gives specific theme for which the students endeavor to create a “product” such as a car design or a musical piece. The student’s creation is then evaluated by the teacher and the industry. Individualized counseling is provided for each student to acquire skills necessary in the work site. In a selected area the curriculum is customized for each student. At the same time we provide humanistic education that is indispensable to work as specialists in the business world.

Where government certification is a requisite for employment, all possible efforts are made to achieve 100% success rate in licensure examinations. A career center assists student to fully apply what they have learned in their work environment. We have been highly evaluated by employers. All students find jobs of their desired areas.

An investment in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, as well as continuous programs of professional development for faculty and staff form the cornerstone of the Jikei Group. The quality of the teaching is reexamined and improved through the support of the Jikei Education Science Center.
When asked “What type of education is required to survive in the 21st Century?”, he responded:
English education and information technology education. The ability to use both English and information technology as communication tools is becoming indispensable. These skills are being incorporated into our curricula. Students are encouraged and supported in planning and arranging for study and internships abroad.
On plans for the future, he shared that:

Higher education system is undergoing reforms toward diversification of certification. Graduates of professional colleges can now receive “senmonn shi” equivalency to associate degrees and “koutou senmon shi” equivalent of baccalaureate degrees. Master’s programs are to be opened to graduates of professional college graduates. Regulations are being relaxed for establishing professional training colleges. Therefore courses of studies will be widely available to meet all levels of personnel that the business world needs. Night schools will be simultaneously opened and e-learning and distance education will be widely available. Types of students are now wide and varied including the traditional students directly from high-schools, college or university graduates and those with experiences in the society, and many foreign students.

Maintaining and building on its core strength of relevancy and responsiveness, the future for proactively positioned professional training colleges such as the Jikei Group looks very bright indeed.

Hakuoh Women’s Junior College

Hakuoh University and Hakuoh Women’s Junior College is a private institution located in the city of Oyama in the prefecture of Tochigi which lies north of Tokyo and may be considered the entrance to the Tohoku (northeastern) provinces of Japan.

The northeastern provinces still remain largely rural and relatively unsophisticated in many ways. However, the charm of “old Japan” where human relationships matter and family values still influence the young, can still be found even among the freeways, “gas-stops” and the ubiquitous shopping malls and convenience stores. The world famous Nikko region with its historical shrines dedicated to Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled Japan for 250 years until the arrival of Perry’s Black Ships, is located in the picturesque mountains of Tochigi. Expanded bullet train services from Tokyo Station to the Tohoku region can reach Oyama City in less than half an hour. At Oyama Station the passengers can see in the skyline the towering building of the Hakuoh University-East campus which houses its newly opened Graduate School of Law.

Hakuoh University’s roots are in the historical Ashikaga City, which thrived as a feudal strongpoint during the Muromachi Period of Japan (14th Century). Hakuoh University began as the Ashikaga Textile Women’s School in 1915 which was incorporated into a high school in 1927, bringing needed educational opportunities to the rural region. The Hakuoh Educational Foundation was incorporated in 1951, followed by the establishment of the junior high school in 1961 and the women’s junior college in 1974.

The founder, the late Dr. Kazuyoshi Kamioka, a life-long educator, wanted to make a difference for ordinary students through higher education. He was an idealist inspired by the spirit of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and chose the words “plus ultra” (More Beyond) as the motto of his educational institution. The name Hakuoh means White Seagull. The founder’s dream was to open an institution that effectively bridged the gap between theoretical and practical education and to enable students to acquire skills for working and living in an increasingly global and technological society. He was particularly interested in Eigo-ka, English teaching and learning, and wanted to strengthen the skills of Japanese teachers who taught English in local schools.

When Hakuoh Women’s Junior College opened its doors in 1974, it was authorized by the national Ministry of Education to enroll 100 students in Early Childhood Education to become teachers for pre-schools and kindergartens, 50 students in Eigo-ka for preparation as English teachers in the middle schools of the region, and 100 students in business communication and clerical skills. All of these fields enabled local young women to prepare for employment. But that was not all. Along with the practical skills, the Hakuoh Women’s Junior College students were given opportunities to enroll in arts and cultural studies, with a special focus on music, including the rare hand-bell orchestra which has won several national and international awards.

In 1986 an application was submitted to the Ministry of Education to add a four-year university to its enterprise in order to offer fields of study which could not be authorized under the junior college structure. When the application was finally approved in 1991, the Faculty of Business Management was established, followed by the Faculty of Law, and in 1999, graduate programs were added in both Business Management and Law.

The institution officially became Hakouh University and Junior College. With 4000 plus students coming from the wider Kanto-Tohoku (northeastern) region, Hakuoh University is a major contributor to the economic base of Oyama City and the neighboring localities of southern Tochigi prefecture. Hakuoh Junior College was truly a community’s college in the fullest sense of the term.

Given its historical roots and remaining true to the founder’s vision, the decision to discontinue the separate function and identity of the Hakuoh Junior College was not an easy one to make. This decision in 2003 was an inevitable one, necessitated by the pressure to remain competitive in the highly volatile and competitive educational market. As mentioned elsewhere in this chapter, the decline in college-age population, as well as the changing ambitions of young women, made the operation of a traditional junior college economically untenable, especially for a private college located in a relatively rural region.

Other factors contributed to the demise of this junior college. One was the nationally centralized educational policies which prescribed and limited programs offerings at the junior colleges. The other factor was the lack of articulated academic transfer pathway for graduates of junior colleges to enter the universities. For Hakuoh Junior Colleges students in the two-year education program for pre-school and kindergarten teachers, a natural and often desirable career option was to be certified to teach at the elementary school level. Such certification, however, could only be obtained through a four-year university program. But there was no articulated transfer pathway into a university for these students. Likewise, the expansion of a successful program for training of English teachers for middle schools to also train high school English teachers was not permitted under the centralized policy which limited high school teacher training to a four-year university.

Articulation with universities and credit transfer remain a major challenge for Japan’s junior colleges, and contribute to the continuing decline in junior college enrollment. While there have been successful attempts at systematic credit transfer, such as that at the University Consortium Kyoto, which involved public and private universities and junior colleges largely in Kyoto which is known as a university town, such efforts appear not yet to be common in other parts of Japan..

Given such circumstances, there was very little option for the leadership of Hakuoh other than to take the step to absorb the existing junior college programs under the university umbrella. This decision resulted in the creation of a new four-year program of Educational Development (Hattatsu-kagakubu) which incorporated the junior college’s

early childhood education program, and the move of the junior college’s business education into the University’s Business Management program as a sub-program. In the spring of 2006, Hakuoh Junior College will graduate its last class and the name “Hakuoh Junior College” will be history.