A ministry official, Yasuyuki Shimotsuma, said last month that once the University Council's final report is issued this fall, the ministry will act on it, as the two groups work in tandem. The recommendations are part of a larger report on globalization and Japanese universities. The report encourages universities to embrace the Internet as a way to make education more accessible to working adults and more effective for full-time students. It also encourages them to recruit more foreign students, and to work with foreign universities to develop Internet technologies. Some observers say the demand for Internet courses could be limited.
Many Japanese students have difficulty with the English language.
And Internet use in general lags far behind the United States, so that students may not be comfortable with taking a course entirely online. And Internet access is extremely expensive compared to the United States. U.M.U.C., a major provider of online courses, is just beginning to market its programs in Japan, primarily to working adults. Employees in multinational companies are more likely to be comfortable with earning a degree through the Internet than college students are, Ms. McNamara said. But John N. Hawkins, chairman of the division of social sciences and comparative education at the University of California at Los Angeles, thinks the demand for Internet education shouldn't be underestimated.