Best Business Schools in Japan??

[zakkie13901]

hi guys,
heads up - i'll be applyin to an MBA program in Japan, and i thought any of you guys could care to enlighten me on which are the best business schools in japan?
i couldnt find any of that info online -- it's not like japan has some ranking system like US NEWS & REPORT thingy, so that's what i'm trying to find out, my interest is banking and finance area.

thanks!

[Mulboyne]

I don't believe Japan has any internationally ranked business schools. Japanese companies usually sponsor their staff to take courses in the US or Europe. It still isn't that common outside America for people to go to business school. For instance, the UK now has more schools than 10 years ago but firms don't require it anything like their American counterparts. In Europe, Insead has long been highly ranked because France has always favoured technocrats.
Temple University runs a business program in Tokyo and I know people who have gone there who enjoyed it. It doesn't carry a lot of weight in Japan, though, and even less overseas. Japanese nationals seems to get more out of it because it enhances their international credentials. It does show you made the effort and it can help you as part of a broader Japanese immersion but a Temple MBA doesn't have any advantage in the job market over a normal undergraduate degree from a good university so you have to ask yourself what you want to get from the course.

[zakkie13901]

Mulboyne:

thanks for this; i see your point, i have an american education too, and i knew that jap mba programs dont really hold a candle to europe or USofA in terms of quality.. but i heard from my friend (he's in Waseda mba program now, can't helped drooling over his expericene there...) and he said that hitotsubashi is really good among those "Ivies" in japan.
as it's almost impossible to get a scholarship for an american MBA, i'm applying to this MEXT scholarship so i could get one free.
furthermore, i'm planning to switch industry (am in marketing research now) , want to jump into the investment banking bandwagon (GET RICH!! is my goal) so when i have an mba in banking/finance , i could apply to those coveted banking jobs. ----,,,,,,,,how i wish i had double major in business & psychology instead of only the latter!!!
dreamin of getting a cushy bank job, while living in japan, and then with a few years experience, i would be much more mobile to go any where in the world --- like ,,, vancover/toronto is my second destination??!

any high flyers from relevant industry wanna share on this..?

thanks pal, for reading..

[Gilligan]

While I can't vouche for the quality of the education, I know that the business school at Keio Univeristy used to do joint-research with the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania).

[Charles]

I helped a FG friend of mine with his applications for biz school, he moved back to the US to attend the MBA program at Columbia. All the big names he considered were here in the US, like Harvard, Wharton, Kellog, Sloan, etc. and he could have gotten in anywhere in Japan (he had a year at Nanzan, and also was accepted for but turned down an undergrad year at Todai). But do not think that a US program would preclude Japanese involvement, my friend had a summer internship at Lehman in Tokyo, arranged through the Columbia program.

Basically, you really really want to do your MBA at a top rank US school, if you can get in. A US MBA degree is worth a lot more than any Japanese MBA program, or for that matter, any other world MBA program.

[Mulboyne]

The best paying jobs in investment banking are still with non-Japanese firms. The likes of Nomura often compete on packages for foreign staff in their international offices but they do have a tendency to get cold feet.

Finance is a moving target: the highest paid areas don't always remain that way. Currently, the best paying jobs are at hedge funds and private equity firms but you can find yourself working for free if your employer has a rough year - for instance, most of the hedge funds in Japan have struggled this year. Who knows if they will stay at the top.

It is possible that Japanese investment banks will pay more in the future on average than, say Goldman Sachs, but it is unlikely. Most of those who have done well out of Japanese firms have been traders or buyout specialists who have gained access to the balance sheet. It doesn't matter how good your ideas are if you can't get any capital to invest in them and if you can't make money for your employer then they won't pay you. The best time to work at Japanese firms is when Japanese clients are highly-valued. You get to see their flow of money and consequently learn more. However, they haven't held that status for years now. Perhaps they will again but you have to think about what scenario would produce that outcome.

Given that, the best jobs in Japan are likely to be non-Japanese investment banks. Most now require Japanese language proficiency although they will bend that requirement if you have other skills which are in short supply. You can join straight to the Tokyo office of a foreign investment bank but the highest-paid staff are those who are parachuted in from overseas on a package so you are always better off joining the head office and working out a strategy to get transferred. A Japanese MBA would show an HR department that you would probably be useful in Tokyo if you were fluent but a Japanese national with the same MBA would be just as qualified if not more so. Top of the pecking order would be a fluent foreigner with an MBA from a top international school.

If you want the experience of a Japanese MBA, then I'm not going to advise against it. It won't automatically put you in pole position in the recruitment stakes, however, so you need to be aware of how you are going to spin it when you apply for jobs. You could do worse than contact HR departments of your target firms and talk with them about what you are looking to do and see what they think. I would also try to speak with alumni of various programs who have found work in the areas you want to target.

[Taro Toporific]

While I can't vouche for the quality of the education, I know that the business school at Keio Univeristy ....

From what I remember, Keio had the first MBA program in Japan (MBAs didn't really exist in Japan until the 1980s). Talking to my Japanese friend (MBA Columbia) running the admin. section of ShittyBank (シティバンク ) they give props to Keio first, and then it's a toss-up among Waseda, Todai, Kyodai. My friend says they always prefer a "brandname" MBA from the West but for Japanese business degrees they stick to the typical Japanese university pecking order with a tip-of-the-hat to Keio for being in the lead.

[zakkie13901]

thanks ,,, that was a lot of help i could ever expect!`

charles=--Mulboyne=--Gilligan=--
yea, who wouldnt be glad to dive into UsofA IVY campuses on an MBA track?
one: i cant' afford it.
two: i cant afford it and it would take me a few years b4 i could save enough to go there for 1 or even 2 years?
three: i cant afford it and i got this MEXt or whatever mongakubusho in front of me FOC?
four: i really want to go to japan...(i havent even been there b4)

i think there're less rungs for me to climb in terms of career boost-points compared ot the JPN national?
i have extensive experience working in an asian environment, speaks english, mandarin, cantonese (no prize for bingo-ing my ethnicity), and soon-to-be JLPT1-graded proficiency (but that's after i got to jpn, i'm confident of passing jlpt2 now).

Keio -- hmm, no one told me that it's the lead in jpn, thanks for the advance info, appreciate it.
but i know hitotsubashi has produced quite a few ministers (fianance, BOJ head) as what i can see, and i thought their programs (especially econs but i might be wrong) looks pretty worthy.
okay, but i know american-ish places like Temple and Sophia are definitely out of the A* pack?

japanese banks,,, ? --- nope, i mean i guess i'll like the jpn-zen-yakitori environ but i dont think i can fit in the jpnworkenviron, just not me..
so foreign institutions is the way to go... although i know mergers & A. are the hype in australia and hongkong/PRC area, but no worries i speak thee languor, so there should be no prob dumping me there.

Mulboyne=--
hey thanks for helping out to ask your contacts on this, i can see you got some conections in there huh, guess** you're either a academic or in the consulting industry.

anyway, guys -0<_>0- appreciate all this , keep your comments/opinions comin, love ot get your feedbakc on this, even for posteriority and all.

GL.

[Taro Toporific]

... but i know american-ish places like Temple and Sophia are definitely out of the A* pack? ...

Temple and Sophia are great for Japanese to prove their internationalness but you don't need to prove that (and so-called "international" English-based programs aren't rigorous). Temple for MBA seeking gaijin is great as a night school or continuing education venue for gaijin already here. And Sophia, well it's for Japanese, returnees and people looking to study Japanese in protected environment---it's not really a business school.

If I were you with a promise of "MEXt or whatever mongakubusho" scholarship, I'd shoot for the Todai just because it would put Japanese people in groveling awe.
Actually, I not a greedoid and much more interested in research and actually learning something while in school so Keio, Wasada, and Kyodai come to the fore.


For reference:
Financial Times 2006 Global MBA Rankings
[No Japanese school makes the top 100]
Business Week's 2005 rankings of B-Schools in asia
only IUJ (International University of Japan) is listed

Top15 Asian B-Schools
IUJ (International University of Japan)
Based in Niigata, IUJ was established by Tuck - Dartmouth College, to create strong links with the Japanese economy. IUJ is the only English language MBA in Japan, accredited by the Japanese Ministry of Education. To some extent, IUJ has suffered from an unwillingness of local Japanese companies to accept domestic MBAs. They feel a top flight US MBA is the only qualification which counts. Yet attitudes are changing and as companies sponsor less students to study in the US, IUJ is becoming an attractive alternative for both sponsorship or recruitment.

Which Asia-Pacific Business Schools have improved their position most in the Research?
For the first time, 15 business schools are featured in this research, because they scored more highly than some of their US counterparts, which appeared in previous years. Asian Institute of Management (Philippines), Nanyang (Singapore), Keio University (Japan), Australian National University and Sasin Businss School (Thailand) have all entered the research....

In Japan, Keio University Business School was founded in 1962 and has played the role of pioneer in Japanese management education. More than half of the coursework is based on case studies. Students can take part in exchanges with seventeen highly ranked business schools outside Japan. In 2000, the School was the first Japanese organization to receive certification from AACSB.