It has always been said that in Japan, "it is hard to get into college, and easy to graduate". By contrast, US universities are characterized by the Japanese as easy to get in, hard to graduate.
The accuracy of above statements aside, it is true that generally speaking, Japanese students study much much harder in High School than in College, because the College you get into traditionally determines much of the rest of your life. So the stereotype is that students cram to get into great schools, then party for 4 years because their grades don't matter in landing employment.
Within this general stereotype, there is a further stereotype that the students in science and engineering slave away in the labs while the humanities students have a jolly good time in the social culture group "circles".
Given the hierarchy of stereotypes above, it isn't a big surprise to me if the humanities are seen by some as "glut" that can be cut, since government is subsidizing student partying. But it's surprising since the lawmakers should predominantly be from these exact programs being cut.
> It has always been said that in Japan, "it is hard to get into college, and easy to graduate". By contrast, US universities are characterized by the Japanese as easy to get in, hard to graduate.
I can confirm that it is the case. Once you get it, it's like vacation. 20 hours max of classes per week, no homework, no practicals, it's relax time and that's when they take a side job to make money since they have so much free time.
Japan's Universities level compared to how much they cost is completely laughable, The whole education is done by private companies once the new graduates enter the workforce, since they know close to nothing.
> Once you get it, it's like vacation. 20 hours max of classes per week, no homework, no practicals
When I studied philosophy here in Belgium, I attended about 10 hours of classes a week on average, and while we did have a whole bunch of papers to write every semester, overall it wasn't particularly taxing. But having a light course load allowed me to dive much more deeply into topics of interest, from the ancient sophists to the history of economics, stuff that was never going to get me better grades but that was fascinating in its own right. I also spent a lot of time at the student newspaper learning how to code, how to do print design, how to write and at the end how to manage a newsroom.
Now, more than five years later I'm back in school in an intensive statistics program, and while it's much more challenging than philosophy was, that doesn't necessarily make it better: I'm building up a huge list of "things to study after I graduate because I don't have time now" and even if I wanted to participate in e.g. the student council, I don't know where I would find the energy.
If universities are supposed to educate us to become well-rounded individuals, pushing your students to the limit so there isn't time for anything else is not necessarily such a great strategy.
I'm fully aware many people would just use any free time you give them to party. But that's part of what makes this so sad. If people never have to learn how to meaningfully organize their lives outside of school, there's a good chance they still won't know how to once they've got a job.
My problem is not with the hours of work you have to put it, but when you get a degree in X or Y you are expected to know certain things, and there's a certain amount of work and experience you need to have developed by the time you get your degree.
I just don't see how Japanese could be way more efficient than Westerners who put 50-60 hours per week (speaking from my experience) and get to the same level in the end. And there is no surprise, they don't. They clearly don't have the level to compete at the University level, both in experience as well as general knowledge.
And that's a shame, because the University should be about the subject you are the most interested to study, and therefore there should be no restraint as to how much you would be willing to learn, instead of having so few hours per week.
In the end, the cost is on society as companies waste a year or more to educate new graduates to make them into productive employees.
Well the cost is about $8k/year at Tokyo University, which is way cheaper than any reputable university in the United States.
I've been at one of the largest companies in Japan as a new grad, and I agree that in some ways they pick up the slack, but their internal training systems can be pretty broken and inefficient as well.
> Well the cost is about $8k/year at Tokyo University, which is way cheaper than any reputable university in the United States.
That's because the US system is completely broken and makes it easy to borrow instead of making it easy to pay, which drives the prices upward on and on without any limit in sight, as long as you can borrow (thank the Fed for their interest rates policies!).
> their internal training systems can be pretty broken
Agree it's not perfect, but at least they learn by doing real work. I have seen new grads jump form a "zero level" to "someone I could recommend to work with" within a couple years at a company.
I do wish that HR departments in Japanese megacorps actually gave a damn about matching undergraduate backgrounds to assignments though. So much waste there.
> I do wish that HR departments in Japanese megacorps actually gave a damn about matching undergraduate backgrounds to assignments though. So much waste there.
LOL yeah !! I have seen folks who studied Biology land their first job in Sales! Seriously...
In certain spots, yes. Vulnerable industries like semiconductors, IT vendors, and household electronics look like they are in trouble.
However, that has meant that students flock to industries where said lifetime employment is still a rock. The #1 destination is Import-export trade companies (Mitsubishi Shouji being the top dog there), followed by ad agencies Dentsu and Hakuhodou, then super high quality industrial companies such as Toyota, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Utilities, etc.
No, not really. I mean, the % of folks with a guaranteed job BEFORE they graduate is going down a bit, but still higher than anywhere else in the world.
The accuracy of above statements aside, it is true that generally speaking, Japanese students study much much harder in High School than in College, because the College you get into traditionally determines much of the rest of your life. So the stereotype is that students cram to get into great schools, then party for 4 years because their grades don't matter in landing employment.
Within this general stereotype, there is a further stereotype that the students in science and engineering slave away in the labs while the humanities students have a jolly good time in the social culture group "circles".
Given the hierarchy of stereotypes above, it isn't a big surprise to me if the humanities are seen by some as "glut" that can be cut, since government is subsidizing student partying. But it's surprising since the lawmakers should predominantly be from these exact programs being cut.