Washington Post On Japan Shunning US Universities

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]WaPo: Once drawn to U.S. universities, more Japanese students staying home
Takuya Otani would love an MBA from a top U.S. business school, but he won't apply. When he graduates from college in Tokyo next year, he'll pass on an American degree and attend graduate school in Japan. "I am a grass-eater," Otani said wistfully, using an in-vogue expression for a person who avoids stress, controls risk and grazes contentedly in home pastures. Once a voracious consumer of American higher education, Japan is becoming a nation of grass-eaters. Undergraduate enrolment in U.S. universities has fallen 52 percent since 2000; graduate enrolment has dropped 27 percent. It is a steep, sustained and potentially harmful decline for an export-dependent nation that is losing global market share to its highly competitive Asian neighbors, whose students are stampeding into American schools...more...

Mutant Frog had a blog post on this subject back in December, following the appearance of an Asahi article which covered much the same territory. Commenters there thought the analysis was too simplistic; for instance, it ignores the growing numbers of Japanese students who enrol in non-US institutions.

[Kanchou]

It's probably because Japanese universities are just glorified day cares, where the only real education you get is studying for the entrance exams, and the only benefit you get is the name of the university on your diploma...

To get A's in the US, you actually have to, you know, study...hard. This goes doubly for graduate schools.

In Japan, it's all about where you went and where your employer went, so there's no need or incentive to get a degree abroad unless you want a real education, or plan on working overseas.

[Kuang_Grade]

Yeah, another great example of the 3rd grade math skills that Washington Post editors have...it sure is absolutely shocking that countries with 7 to 9 times more people (and probably even high multiples of 18-30 year olds) than Japan would have more or growing numbers of US college attendees. Sure, folks in India and China aren't as wealthy those in Japan, but there are enough up and comers in both countries that they can move the needle on products like this. But after pumping up the lead, they then say 'oh, yeah, demographic issues in Japan are likely a big factor too.' Also unmentioned is the split between undergrad and grad studies...It was my understanding that most J undergrads were doing this on their own dime while many J grad students were being financed by their employers...So factor in the fairly radical employment changes (esp with younger employees) in major J companies over the last decade and it shouldn't be much of a surprise if many J companies were no longer bankrolling grad students to go to the US (or possibly anywhere else)...Or what are the changes in J foreign investment over the last 10 years, and how much of was going to say China and the US 10 years ago vs today...but I guess it is much easier to fit in a "I'm a grass eater" quote into the story than to do any of that sort of research.

A few weeks ago, the washington post had front page, above the fold, piece that was utterly indignant about how DC area bus riders were getting totally shafted with a proposed 20% fare increase when compared to a 15% subway fare increase. After much mashing of teeth, they then mentioned...Oh, yeah, bus fares weren't increased 2 years ago like subway fares were, and oh, yeah, the base fares for buses are lower than subway base fares, so even thought both subway and bus fares will go up by the EXACT SAME 25 CENTS, but due to the already higher subway base fare, the subway fare increase is smaller on percentage basis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802897_pf.html

[Catoneinutica]

J-student were certainly good little earners for US universities, but they mostly seem to have just slept their way through their Wharton classes, and they were always clannish and self-isolating. Still, the fact that Harvard has 20 Korean students in the most recent entering class to Japan's 2 is pretty telling.

-catone

-a tale of two J-kids, children of doctor friends/colleagues of my wife: Dr. and Dr. S lived in NYC for a few years, and their boy spoke fluent English as a result. I suggested that he go to an English-language university. Mom said, oh no, he wants to go to Todai. Six years later the kid has achieved his (mom's) goal, and is in Todai and has been thoroughly oxygen-deprived into a J-zombie incapable of stammering a few words of English. Dr. and Dr. K lived in San Diego for a few years and risked censure and ostracism from the tansoku tribe by opting to send their English-fluent son to a boarding school in England. The kid is now at Oxford studying quantitative financial analysis and has multiple job offers awaiting him in the City or Wall Street.

[Mulboyne]

A poster on the NBR Forum has drawn attention to this report (PDF) on flows between Japan & the US which has just been published. The statistics are interesting on both sides. It appears that US visitors to Japan are getting older on average and are predominantly male. Conversely, Japanese visitors to the US are younger and, over the last 20 years, have included more women.