From: underdog@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dwight Joe)
Subject: Re: Japan/US comparison
Organization: Miners for a Heart of Gold
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 00:09:51 GMT

In article <SHAW.92Oct9184253@au-bon-pain.lcs.mit.edu> shaw@au-bon-pain.lcs.mit.edu (Andy Shaw)
writes:
>In article <2234@usna.NAVY.MIL> wdw@math2.sma.usna.navy.MIL (Wm. Douglas Withers -- math
>FACULTY <wdw@sma.usna.navy.mil>) writes:
>>... And then we come to the schools.  I find it generally true that products
>>  of Japanese high schools are better educated than those from American high
>>  schools.  However, many in Japan are becoming interested in reforming their
>>  school system to become more like the American system (the Japanese system
>>  is awfully hard on the kids).  And when it comes to colleges and universities,
>>  many believe the U.S. has quite an edge on Japan (including me).

Mr. Withers has presented many excellent points.  I just wished to add to that
finest universities in the world are found in the USA, not Japan.  As for outstanding
graduate institutes, the University of Tokyo would not be one of them, contrary
to popular belief.  Many of the graduate programs are poorly funded and ill-equipped,
by American standards.

The best research university is the University of Tsukuba.  It's entrance procedure is
strikingly similar to that for major research institutes in the USA.

>...
>In terms of things which are important, I believe that Japan is far ahead
>of the US -- that is, if things continue as they are now, I have no
>problems believing that in ten years, most of the world will aspire to a
>Japanese standard of living, and a Japanese way of life, and that being
>Japanese will confer far more status, prestige and power than being
>American in the world.

The Japanese, over the last 20 years, have made incredible sacrifices,
prinipally in living standards, to enable Japan as a whole to rack up huge
trade surpluses.  GDP per capita is about the same as the GDP per capita in
the USA; however, GDP per capita per hour of work (i.e. actual hours worked
as opposed to the official 8-hour work day) is much lower than the USA and
probably close to Britain's output.  The closed markets, too, have driven
consumer prices to levels that are 20-30% more than prices of similar goods
in the USA.  There are lots of other annoyances, of which many Japanese are
aware.

If Japan implements the changes suggested by the USA in the Structural
Impediment Initiative talks (SII talks), then the standard of living will 
skyrocket to the level in the USA or slightly higher (but not much more).
The SIIs will help both the USA and Japan.

Yes, the trade surpluses will come down.  The Japanese won't work so long
every day.  The Japanese will begin to think more about the world beyond
its shores in terms that are not confined solely to economics.  Japan
will become a fine nation but not one that is superior to America.  The
Japanese will become more like us that they will want to admit.

(Then, it's time to boot China out of the permanent council of the UN
and to put Japan on it.)

>
>I do not believe that the Japanese are invincible, nor do I believe the
>American situation is hopeless....

There is little sense of pragmatics in America.  Take education for example.
For the last 10 years, people have been arguing back and forth about what
should be put into the high school curriculum.  Finally, Edward Bennett
(then Secretary of Education in the Reagan White House) sticks his neck
out and offers a curriculum; it is college-prep and resembles very
much the demands which are placed on Japanese kids--lotsa science and
math.  Of course, there was much emphasis on the books written by great Western
thinkers.

Well, the first thing that happens is that bozos from the Politically Correct
movement pop up all over the place and accuse Bennet of making a "lily white"
curriculum; i.e. there is far too much emphasis on the achievements of
of White men in Western civilization.  Some of those same bozos were
Chinese-Americans who subsequently were part of the Rainbow Coalition that
stormed the Stanford President's Office in or about 1989; apparently, part of
their grievance was the "excessive" emphasis on the achievements of Western
civilization in the Stanford undergraduate curriculum.

Here's the rub.  Some Chinese-Americans will tout Japan as a symbol
of how far America has declined, using Japan as a kind of Oriental godsend.
Meanwhile, they will advocate the kind of educational tampering with America's
education that even liberal-minded Japanese educators would never even
think of doing to Japan's education system.

Here's the tally to date.  Bennett's proposal has never implemented.
The Western civilization component of the Stanford undergraduate curriculum
has been reduced.  Some extra courses on Chinese-American culture, with liberal
helpings of glorification of the Chinese culture, have been added.

Does anyone really think that Japanese educators would tolerate cutting
chunks out of Meiji-restoration history (a crucial element of Japanese
modernization) in order to triple the time spent on Chinese contributions
to the development of the "cha-siu man"?  (A cha-siu man is a white biscuit
with bits of barbecue pork in the filling.)  No, I didn't so.

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