EDITORIAL

CREDITS: (TOP) PHOTO SUPPLIED BY THE AUTHOR; (RIGHT) GETTY IMAGESKiyoshi Kurokawa is aprofessor at the National
Graduate Institute forPolicy Studies in Tokyoand was Special Advisor
to the Cabinet of Japan
from 2006 to 2008.

WITH A GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AT HAND, IT IS CLEAR THAT MAJOR CHANGE IS NEEDED
among leading nations. For Japan, this comes at a time when two prime ministers have left officein barely 2 years, and support for the new prime minister, Taro Aso, is weak less than 2 months
after he took up office. Perhaps the public, sensing the need for change, is pessimistic about thepossibilities, given that Japan has been so resistant to change over the past decade.
Clearly, today’s global competition demands entrepreneurs with distinct out-of-the-box
talents. The flattening global market is also driving the need for diversity and collaboration,
essential for the kind of open innovation that creates new markets. Like other nations, Japan’s
investments in science, technology, and innovation are crucial to its economic growth. Universities play a key role in nurturing future talents and leaders in every sector of society.
Therefore, government support for academic science is vitally important. However, in Japan,such investment by the government often fails to nurture the potential ofthese individuals. This is partly due to an insular, hierarchical, andmale-dominated system that still prevails in every sector of Japanesesociety, including academic institutions.
Meanwhile, many universities in other countries have become more
open to the world, thereby becoming cores of the global community.
They are creating programs that attract students from around the world
and address global challenges in areas such as health, energy, climatechange, and the environment. The international student-faculty-alumni
network that these efforts forge is a powerful tool that is crucial for any
nation’s future success. In contrast, only a few universities in Japan are
truly international: At Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 50% of theundergraduate students are international and half of the courses are given
in English; Akita International University, a typical small liberal arts college, has 40% international students, with most courses taught in English.
Leading universities outside of Japan aim to attract not only the world’s most promising
students but also the best faculty and academic leadership, be it dean, provost, or president.
Some invite outstanding women to lead them: the University of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and Harvard University, to name a few. Among
approximately 80 national universities in Japan, only one has a woman at the top (Ochanomizu University, a women’s university). Among Japan’s private universities and colleges, thesituation is not much different. Inviting someone from the outside to a top academic position
is still exceptional, as it is in Japan’s business sector.
But change is imminent. In 2009, the Japanese government will launch new programs in science and technology that join universities and research institutes in Japan with those in Africa.
The program moves beyond simply inviting graduate students from Africa to Japan; it will promote joint bilateral research projects involving faculty and students.
Also, the Ministry of Education has submitted a budget beginning in fiscal year 2009 for an
unusually ambitious program that increases opportunities for students to go abroad for a year aspart of an exchange. The number of Japanese students who go abroad, even to universities in theUnited States, has fallen rapidly over the past few years (from 46,000 to 35,000). Reasons forthis decline are unclear, but it comes at a time when meeting the future challenges in any country requires a circulation of human capital and resources that supports a vibrant international
exchange of ideas and talents. The newly proposed exchange programs target 30 leading universities and aim to have at least 10% of all students study abroad within the next 5 years. Thebudget also requires that these universities offer many courses in English, which will hopefully
attract non-Japanese students and faculty.
It is critical to approve this 2009 budget request because it will ultimately keep Japan economically robust and competitive. Otherwise, I fear that my country will become closed offfrom an increasingly interconnected global community, turning Japan back 150 years in its history to a time before Commodore Matthew Perry opened Japan to the world.

Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on November 20, 2008

Opening Japan Up to the World– Kiyoshi Kurokawa
10.1126/science.1161131

www.sciencemag.org

SCIENCEVOL 322

Published by AAAS21 NOVEMBER 2008

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