Japan's System of Post-Secondary Education

by

Wataru Hasegawa

Teachers College, Columbia University
Department of Organization and Leadership
Educational Administration

Japan's System of Post-Secondary Education
Table of Contents

I: Introduction

Overview
The Current System of Post-Secondary Education, 1999

II: A Historical Sketch of Japan's Educational Institutionalization
 

Part One:
Japan's Educational System in the Pre-Modern Era

Part Two:
Modernization

Part Three:
Educational Institutionalization in the Post-War Era

III: Conclusion

Problem analysis: The Current University and Senmon Gakko

References

I   Introduction
 

Overview

The Current System of Post-Secondary Education, 1999
 

Overview
 

 Private institutions of higher education are having a significant impact on Japan’s educational system.  For over a century now, Japan has been following a strictly defined and controlled National Educational System, yet lesser known but more flexible and innovative private institutes have been gaining influence.  This paper is a study of the impact on higher education（＊１） of private institutes, assessed through their legal and institutional history.
In general, the Japanese system of higher education has mainly followed the European mode of education.  In fact, academic researchers in actual practice tend to neglect other methods of education even though, as in the United States, those same methods are considered some of the most important objects of study. Since the establishment of the national educational system, in 1878, the main system of post-secondary schools in Japan has rapidly developed directly as a result of conservative governmental control. Especially in the decades after the Second World War, Japan accomplished its remarkable recovery mostly as a result of this strong governmental sponsorship of education.  Although this powerful control has had its impact upon the progress of education in Japan, the private school system has been a major factor in this success story. Thus, rapid development has been accomplished along a twin track, by means of the strictly controlled national school system on the one hand, but with a more flexible private school system developing collaterally.  What follows is a brief description of educational legislation and the private post-secondary school.  In addition, I describe the benefits of the private system, and I also touch upon the reasons scholarly research has tended to ignore private institutes in favor of studying the public system.
 

Educational Legislation
The current Japanese school system began with a law that was mandated in 1878, and modified in 1947 to form the School Education Law Article 1, which established universities and junior colleges. This is the main educational track in Japan.  There is also the collateral track which includes the special course schools(Senmon Gakko)（＊２）, (e.g., computer schools), and the miscellaneous schools (Kakusyu Gakko), ( e.g., sewing schools). Such non-university schools are under legislation enacted in 1947, which covers various kinds of education.
 

Non-university schools in Japan
The function of the Japanese collateral private school sector is quite similar to that of the two-year college, the community college, or the vocational school in the American system. Among these schools in Japan, some offer an associate's degree, and a few even offer graduate school programs through a strong academic link with U.S. graduate schools.  These schools are not so strictly controlled by the government and operate under free competition. To get good students, they sometimes find it in their interest to offer more advanced educational programs.
Yet these non-university private schools tend to have a number of disadvantages as well. Due to the lack of governmental control, the schools are often faced with socio-economic and structural problems.  In general, many of the schools do not maintain a high quality education, and the academic level of the students is often lower than in the universities.  Finally, among these private schools are some which define themselves as for-profit institutes without primary regard for the real needs of community members.
However, there are several schools that have managed to succeed and have a significant impact on Japan’s educational system, and the fact is that enrollment in these non-university schools is now quite significant -- by 1995, more than one-fourth (27%) ofhigher education students.（＊３）  In some particular majors, such as computer education, more than 90% of post-secondary students have been studying at these private schools. In fact, most of the computer programmers and engineers in Japan are graduates of these collateral private schools. Thus, it is impossible to ignore the fact that these private schools are meeting the demands and needs of a rapidly changing time.  In addition, this collateral educational track also offers several benefits to the main academic system.
 

Benefits of the Collateral Track
From a more pragmatic American point of view, the different aspects of Japan’s educational system are quite apparent. The Japanese educational system is well controlled and rigid. In general, such  stringent control can prevent or eliminate any steep overall decline in education, but such control makes it harder to quickly meet the educational demands and needs of the population, especially in this rapidly changing era. However, at long last, the government seems to have finally become well aware of the bad effects of a strictly controlled school system. They now let private schools compete freely and achieve good results, which are then adopted within the main public academic system. Computer education developed in this manner during 1970s and 1980s.  Several computer-related programs have been developed in public high schools. The curricula are very similar to computer courses in the private sector. Clearly these private schools supply the model by which the government can benefit from already-tested academic changes.  Private schools implement changes through a trial and error process assuming all the responsibility and consequences.  The successes are  then integrated by the government into the main academic program.
The government has recently been trying to accelerate development of the special course school (Senmon Gakko).（＊４）   At the same time, the government  tends to ignore junior colleges(Tanki Daigaku), in view of the inferior quality of education that still characterizes them.  For a long time, however, only junior colleges (and not the special course schools) could offer the associate's degree.
Finally, since 1996, these special course schools have been permitted to offer a specialist's degree, which is a kind of associate's degree in the U.S.  In addition, since 1998, graduates of special course schools can  transfer to the university.
Today, the educational system in Japan is rapidly changing. There is a need for a study that can give an overview of the full story (and not omit discussion of the collateral track education in Japan), one that can identify the impact of legislation on these schools and can characterize the experience of a few of these schools over the last few decades.
There are several reasons why there are very few studies which analyze the impact of the private non-university educational system.
 

The Reasons why Scholarly Research Focuses on the Main System
So far, in Japan, scholarly research on educational institutions has focused almost exclusively on Japan's main track system. At the same time, only a few reports about Japan’s private non-university schools are available in other countries. The scarcity of information on these private non-university can be attributed to the following three reasons.
First, the scholarly research on higher education takes place mostly at universities, and this results in a point of view that is based on the European mode of education generally practiced there.  For example, several newer pragmatic majors in the U.S. are still not considered academically valid in Europe.  Similarly, scholarly researchers do not consider Japanese education acquired from the non-university private schools as part of the academic field. This suggests a strongly distorted, culturally impaired view point.
Secondly, these non-university private schools are not strictly controlled by the government and as a result, they are more threatened by free competition. Despite the advantages of competition, it remains true that the more schools compete freely, the more their education becomes perfunctory. As a result, maintaining stability in educational quality is often difficult. Most people associate this kind of instability in quality with for-profit companies.  As a result, many people are weary of these non-university private schools, resulting in social prejudice against the collateral school system.
Third, the Japanese university rankings developed by the entrance examination industry also engender a certain social prejudice.  In Japan, for-profit organizations define rankings strictly according to the difficulty of the entrance exams. There is a simple hierarchical perception that all non-university schools rank lower in quality than any university, despite the fact that some of these schools offer more advanced educational programs. There are many people who believe that simply attending a higher-ranked university is more important than learning useful subject matter. People regard the actual name of the university, rather than the major, as the critical factor in their educational pursuits. (Very often, for example, students apply for several majors such as literature, law, education, economics, and politics at the same university at the same time, in the desperate hope of gaining entrance.)  Such a hierarchy enforces discrimination against lower-ranked schools, especially any school that is not designated a "university" or "college." So low-ranked schools are often ignored  even if they offer a good education.
Because of the convergence of these three reasons, then, the non-university schools have not been the object of educational research, even though low rank does not always mean academic inferiority or social marginalization.

It should be now apparent how great the need is for an educational system study such as this one, which analyzes the history of non-university schools and the impact on them of educational legislation.  As we proceed, it will be helpful to keep in mind once again that, functionally speaking, the Japanese non-university private school, as mandated by educational law article 82-2, is similar to the American two-year college.  The collateral educational track offers a number of benefits to the main system, and it is time to explore how those benefits emerge within Japanese education as a whole.
 

The Current System of Post-Secondary Education, 1999

Post-Secondary Education in Japan
Japanese post-secondary education is currently not very different from that of the United States; however, it does have some unique elements, such as the existence of special course schools.  Special course schools (Senmon Gakko) in Japan are similar to non-university higher education in the U.S., though they  maintain substantially broader and richer curricula.
Since 1996, students who finish two years of coursework in a distinguished special course school  can receive a special degree called Senmonshi (specialist), which corresponds to an associate's degree from a two-year junior college in the US.  In addition, as of 1998, transfers from special course schools to universities and four-year colleges are officially accepted. This implies that special course schools are being integrated as part of the Japanese college-level educational system, and the Ministry of Education has in fact accredited the curriculum. The number of students entering special course schools has continued to increase for the past two decades whereas the number of students in junior colleges (Tanki Daigaku) is decreasing.
The Ministry of Education thinks that special course schools will play a more significant role than junior colleges in Japanese higher education.（＊５）Whereas most of the curricula in junior colleges is heavily concentrated on liberal arts, special course schools are more focused on practical education which can be readily applied in the job market, and the schools have the potential to play a major role in the Japanese economy.
 The following is a brief description of post-secondary education in Japan, 1999.
 

University and College
 -- Daigaku--(Legal Definition in the School Education Law Article 1)
 Japanese universities (including graduate schools) and colleges constitute the main track of Japanese higher education.  The course of instruction is normally four years for universities and colleges (except for medical schools, which are 6 years) and between two and three years for junior colleges. The duration for graduate instruction is two years for the master degree, and five years for a Doctorate.
There are three types of Japanese universities: national, public (prefectural and municipal), and private.  In the 1870s, Japan started to adopt the Western university system, which was considered "modern."
The current university system has been in effect since 1947.  According to the School Education Law, the purpose of the Japanese universities is "to provide students with broader intellectual knowledge, morality and practical skills, as well as opportunities to major in special subjects." Its aim is to provide both general and specialized education.

Junior College
-- Tanki Daigaku-- (Legal Definition in the School Education Law, Article 1)
 Two- or three-year colleges are called  Tanki Daigaku or Tandai. With educational reform after  the Second World War, Japanese universities were institutionalized with four-year curricula, and schools that didn't meet this regulation but had a long tradition were categorized under a temporary arrangement that was adopted from the U.S. junior college system.  Behind the establishment of this system, there were also strong demands for technical education and training for middle-skilled workers.
In 1965, junior colleges were institutionalized permanently as a part of higher education.  There are several differences between junior colleges and universities.  One of them is that junior colleges can neither establish graduate schools nor grant bachelor's degrees. They can only provide associate's degrees,  called Jun-gakushi.  In the 1960s, junior colleges were developed as higher educational institutions mainly for girls.  In 1965, the number of these colleges was 369, and the number of students was 147,000. In 1978, there were 519 such schools with 380,000 students. The number of female students continued to increase, and in the 1980s, 90% of the students were female.  80% of the junior colleges are private. The major areas of study are domestic science, liberal arts, and education.   These three areas comprise  60% of all the courses taught, and 70% of all students' majors.  In 1976, a revision of the regulations allowed junior colleges more flexible administration policies, so that creative solutions to the growing demands for community- and adult- education could be developed.
In 1994, there were 593 schools and 520,000 students. However, in the late1990s, due to a decrease in the number of college-age youth and the rapid increase of the special course schools, growth in the number of junior college students has been virtually stagnant.
 

College of Technology
--  Koutou Senmon Gakko -- (Legal Definition in the School Education Law  Article 1)
Responding to the demands of Japanese industry, Colleges of Technology were mandated in 1962 as a partial reform of the 1961 School Education Law as a solution to the shortage of middle-level technicians in Japanese industry.
Colleges of Technology now provide a five-year curriculum designed for junior high school graduates, envisioned as the integration of senior high schools and junior colleges.  However, from the standpoint of the 12-year Japanese compulsory educational system (six-year elementary schools, three-year junior high schools, and three-year senior high schools), the Colleges of Technology are collateral. When this innovation began, it applied only to engineering schools.  In 1967, the Mercantile Marine College of Technology was established, and then in 1971, the Electronic Wave Professional College of Technology was  established.  Most of the schools are national, and in 1994, the total number of schools was just 62, including 55 national schools, four prefectural schools, and three private schools.   The number of national schools has not changed, but the number of private schools has decreased from seven in the 1960's to three.  While high schools, junior colleges, and universities were expanding, the number of Colleges of Technology did not increase for the following reasons.  First, College of Technology graduates could not transfer to a university. Secondly, it is a complicated matter for young junior high school graduates  to select a lifetime career major.
After 1976, technical colleges (four-year colleges) were established to solve the first problem.  For example, in 1977, both Nagaoka technical college and Toyohashi technical college were founded, and these colleges received engineering high school graduates as freshman and College of Technology graduates as juniors.  In 1994, the number of students in Colleges of Technology was 56,000, and 90% of the graduates were employed. After 1996, transferring from Colleges of Technology to universities was officially accepted.
 

Special Course School
-- Sensyu Gakko -- (Legal Definition in the School Education Law Article 82-2)
In order to improve post-junior high school education, current special course schools were institutionalized under the 1975 school ordinance reform.  The objective was to advance the practical skills and abilities of junior high school graduates for use in their professional and daily life. This new category specified "schools that provide the systematic education of professional or general courses."  There are three legal requirements to being qualified as Sensyu Gakko: (1) The schooling duration must be more than one year;  (2) The course load must be more than 800 course hours (For evening classes, more than 450 hours); (3) The school must have at least 40 students. There are three types of courses;  (a) Senior High School courses (Koutou Katei) designed for junior high school graduates; (b) Specialized courses for senior high school graduates (Senmon Katei); and  (c) General courses for all types of students (Ippan Katei).
In particular, the schools that provided specialized courses for senior high school graduates were  legally allowed to be named Senmon Gakko. There are the main concern of this paper.
The number of these special course schools has significantly increased over the years, and they  have earned a reputation as a new type of post-secondary education. The major subjects include engineering, agriculture, medicine, hygiene, education and welfare, commerce, domestic science, and culture, etc.  In May 1995, there were 3,437 schools, and the total number of student was 840,000. Currently, the number of students in special course school exceeds the number of junior college students.  Since 1996, the students who finished two years of coursework in some of the legally distinguished special course schools have been able to receive special degrees, called Senmon-shi (specialist), which corresponds to an associates degree from a two-year junior college in the U.S.  As of 1998, transfers to universities and four-year colleges are officially accepted.

Miscellaneous Schools
-- Kakusyu Gakko  -- (Legal Definition in the School Education Law  Article 82-2)
The term "miscellaneous schools" was first used in the 1879 educational ordinance. The term  "miscellaneous schools (Kakusyu Gakko)" is used for schools established outside of the provision of the School Education Law Article 1.  In 1975, all the miscellaneous schools that met certain requirements were institutionalized under the category of current special course schools (Sensyu Gakko).
According to the special provisions for miscellaneous schools established by the Ministry of Education in 1956, the duration of courses ranges from three months to less than one year. The courses that last more than one year require more than 680 hours of coursework. The major subjects include sewing, accounting, vehicle maintenance, driving, cooking, nutrition, nursing, public health, typing, hairdressing, English, engineering and so on.  The miscellaneous schools meet students' needs that cannot be covered by formal schooling.   Among these schools, test-coaching schools have the largest number of students, sewing schools are second, vehicle maintenance is third, and accounting schools fourth.  One-third of the students in miscellaneous schools are high school graduates. On average, two-thirds of the students stay in a school for less than a year.
 

Test-coaching school(Yobikho) and the smaller, similar Cram Schools(Juku) (NOT legal definition)
 Test-coaching schools (Yobikho) and Cram Schools (Juku) are special schools for students to prepare for entrance examinations to get into higher schools.  Legally, these are mandated as  miscellaneous schools, special course schools or for-profit companies. These originally started to prepare students for entrance examinations for getting into universities. The establishment of cram schools was partly due to the lower quality of junior and high school education.  In recent years, cram schools have appeared specializing in  high school entrance examinations and even elementary school entrance examinations.  In 1960, there were 83,000 students enrolled in cram schools.  The number of students has been significantly increasing,  from 130,000 in 1970, 187,000 in 1975, to 226,000 in 1980.
 
 

II  A Historical Sketch of Japan's Educational Institutionalization
 
 

Part One:Japan's Educational System in the Pre-Modern Era
Part Two;Modernization
Part Three:Post-War Institutionalization

Part One
Japan's Educational System in the Pre-Modern Era

1.Introduction
Japan's system of higher education has developed rapidly over the last 120 years under the influence of Western countries. The modern educational system was a radical departure from its feudal predecessor, but its way was nevertheless prepared by Japanese history and traditions.
Looking back upon the history of higher education in Asia, we see that the origin of the  university is quite different from that of its European counterpart. Traditional Chinese higher education first appeared during the Tong Chou dynasty (B.C.771-221).（＊６）The word for "university"  -- Daigaku  in Japanese,  Da Shwe in Chinese -- appeared somewhere in China between 589 and 907 A.C.E. and originally meant "great learning."  It is used in China and Japan even today.  From the beginning of the Suei dynasty to the end of the Tong dynasty (from 589 A.C.E. to 907 A.C.E.), the revolutionary governmental system (Lue Ling Dje Du) used “Da Shwe” to designate a department of state that functioned as a training ground for bureaucrats.
The concept of Hakase, once a hereditary title passed from father to son, became roughly equivalent to the English word "doctor" or "Ph.D." around this same time. The skills required for the doctorate were thus distinguished from the skills required of the soldier, and conferral of "Hakase" was a proof of the highest intelligence in the state.  In detail, however, the concept of the doctoral degree had different meanings in China and Japan, and even nowadays, the notion of the degree is different even between Europe and America. The modern notion of the doctoral degree in Japan is similar to that of the European "chair" system and is offered as recognition of actual research, while in the United States, on the other hand, it is offered to mark the candidate's ability to do future research.
This chapter will offer an overview of the pre-modern educational system of Japan, focusing on the evolution of higher education.
 

2. The Classical Era
In Japan, the status of degree first appeared in the written record in 645 A.C.E. Shoutoku Taishi, a regent of the Emperor Suiko, is well known as a great scholar whose academic interests included Buddhist and Confucian philosophy. He drafted the 17 articles of the Constitution, edited the history of the Emperor and the nation, and created the principles of national leadership. He built the famous temple Houryuuji, which was considered a special temple-school at the time. He also sent many colleagues to China to study.
In 602, the great monk Kanroku came from Korea bringing manuscripts of astronomy, geography and so on. He directed his students to read them and he himself taught them. It is generally thought that many "home schools" were established in this period by scholars just returned from overseas. The term "home school" in this paper refers to a small school run by a teacher in his home.
Later on, the great monk Min and the aristocrat Takanomuko Kuromaro were appointed as "doctors," which was to say, as bureaucrats at the highest position of an  academic department. In a record dating from 676 (during the dynasty of the Emperor Tenmu), Daigaku-Ryo first  appeared. This is the first educational institute in Japan awarded the name of  "university" -- Daigaku.
During this same period, Buddhism was getting popular, and other studies were advancing as well, especially Confucianism and Confucian writings, along with history, astronomy, calendar study, and mathematics.
The revolutionary governmental system (Taihou Ritsu Ryou) was formed in 701 by the Emperor Monbu, establishing a bureaucratic governmental system based upon the prefectural structure. Bureaucracy requires training centers for government officials, and thus began Japan's national institutional system of education, with the national university in the capital and the local university in each prefecture all established by official mandate. This very fact -- that "university" was primarily a bureaucratic training center -- has since retained a central influence upon Japan's higher educational system.（＊７）
The national university, Daigaku Ryo, served as both a government office of education and an educational institute.  In the national university, the appointed governmental officers and faculty included one doctor, two associate doctors, doctors of reading, pronunciation, writing, mathematics, and so on, for a capacity of 400 students. The qualifications to enter the national university were family membership in the higher aristocracy and being 13 to 16 years old.  Confucianism was at the core of the departments of the national university, with writing and pronunciation as an introductory course and mathematics as a specialty concentration. One thing we should remember here is that the study of writing and reading in this era concerned Chinese and so amounted to foreign language study as a prerequisite for any further  academic study. Later on, the system was reformed into four departments  -- the study of Confucianism, literature, law and  mathematics.  Other specialty schools were also established, including a school of medicine, a school of Chinese Yin Yang philosophy, and a school of traditional music.The government also funded scholarships in this period and the Emperor donated a farm for students.（＊８）
The local university in each prefecture enrolled young people from the local aristocracy as preferred candidates, with ordinary people enrolling only if space remained. The total number of enrollees depended on the prefecture though it was determined that one-fifth of the total number of students must be medical students, and at least one doctor  of philosophy and one medical doctor would be appointed in each local university.
After transferring the capital to Kyoto in 794, the aristocracy would flourish for four hundred  years, during which time each clan established its own educational institute, Zoushi, complete with dormitory. Each clan aimed at getting the highest positions in government to expand the clan's power.  Since the clan schools were recognized by the government, its students could have the right to take the employment examination for official government positions.  In the clan schools, students learned mostly  reading to prepare them for the exam. Beyond these, there were two huge schools, Sugawara's and Ohe's, that enrolled students from any clan, whereas usual Zoushi schools did not.
The national university and the local university were established by the government. The clan school was a sort of private educational institute.  However, its quasi-governmental basis was obvious. In 828, genuine private schools for ordinary people first appeared in Kyoto, established by a famous monk, Kukai. The Syugei Syuchiin was established for all social classes.  Kukai taught the philosophies of Buddhism and Confucianism to various classes of people. His lecture comparing Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism from a philosophical point of view was widely admired. In his youth, he himself had studied at the national university and then in China, so he must have known full well the disadvantages of the aristocrat's education favored by the government system.（＊９）Here was a purely private school and one that eliminated social class discrimination.  This was the origin of Japan's private educational institutes and also of anything truly resembling the university and college in the Western sense.
The national university was financed by a governmental fund. But this private school was financed by student tuition, and within ten years, the school was financially bankrupt, and disappeared.（＊10）
Here, we can see the first antagonism between national and private educational institutes -- the contrast between the concept of the national bureaucratic training institute for the elite and the private educational institute for educating the general population. This was a contrast that continued to inform developments in Japanese education for a thousand years.
 

3. The Medieval Era
The power of the older nobility was gradually replaced by the warrior aristocracy, which  attached great importance to in-family education. Accordingly, there was little notable development in public education.
However, private educational institutes founded by temples flourished.  Many monks and other scholars studied there and some remarkable academic achievements resulted. During this period Kyoto five temples and Kamakura five temples were well-known higher educational institutes of Zen philosophy (Rinzai-syu) and produced many accomplished mature graduates not only in Zen but also in Confucian theory (Chu-tzu) and in Chinese and Japanese literature. Any members of the ruling class could study there and expand his  ability.
Later on, these temples increasingly began enrolling ordinary people, as the status of ordinary people had improved considerably by this point and Buddhism was gaining popularity. Particularly during the Muromachi period (1393 to 1575), juvenile education become popular as well for the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic.  This way of educating ordinary people in the temple is the origin of the later Japanese primary education, particularly the home school (Terakoya).
In the same period, it should be noted that there were two other private educational institutes,  Kanazawa library and Ashikaga school.  The Kanazawa library originated from an actual library belonging  to the Syoumyouji temple, where records show the school to have more than 12,000 books in its collection. The Ashikaga school was established at the end of the 11th century and remained active into the modern era as a village school (Gou kou).  Here, not only Confucianism but also military arts were taught.（＊11）  Saint Francis Xavier, the Spanish Jesuit, wrote about this school in his letter to Goa in India and said "many intellectual thirsts joined together in this university."  After Saint Francis Xavier arrived in the city of Kagoshima and started introducing Roman Catholicism into Japan, a large number of missionaries came to Japan and established some sort of educational institutes to spread Roman Catholicism. Among these, there were the "collegio" (college) for priestly training. Missionaries also founded an academy in Kyoto and taught mathematics and astronomy for several years in the 16th century. This was the first Christian school.
 

4. The Isolationist Era (1633-1868, Edo period)
Japan shut its doors against foreigners from 1633 to 1868. As a result, the nation enjoyed a long period of peace, while Japanese culture and civilization developed into a unique maturity. By this point, the warrior aristocracy was in need of higher education under an increasingly well-established political system. On the other hand, with economic growth, ordinary people came to require more advanced practical knowledge, and many kinds of educational institutes were founded.
So there arose, more or less simultaneously, both national schools and the feudal domain schools for the warrior aristocracy.  Many small, private " home schools," which were run by a teacher at the teacher's house, were opened for both the warrior aristocracy and ordinary people.  In addition, some of them enrolled women. These schools became the basis for the modern elementary schools, and some of them became modern universities and colleges.  The following are descriptions of the various types of schools which flourished during Japan's period of isolation.

4-1. Syouheizaka Gakumonjo: the highest national educational institute
Syouheizaka Gakumonjo was the highest seat of academic learning during this era. This school was founded in 1632 as a private home school for the family of the great scholar Hayashi Razan with the permission and protection of the central government -- Bakufu.  In 1632, Tokugawa Yositoku, a feudal lord of the prefecture of Nagoya, donated a mausoleum.  Later on, the central government took over this school and started to  supervise it directly.
In the beginning, this national school enrolled students sponsored by both the local prefecture and the national government and served as a teacher-training academy for the local schools built in each feudal domain for the education of the warrior elite.  Later on, it enrolled only vassals of the shogun (the title of the Japanese military governor before the 1867-1868 revolution).  The focus of study was mainly the Chinese classics of Confucianism, history, Chinese writing -- all based upon the doctrines of Chu-tzu (a  Chinese Confucian classic).  Other academic areas were prohibited.
The head of this national school was called  Daigaku Kashira (rector, the head of university) and controlled all educational matters for the government. This was an inherited position.  From the fact that the word Daigaku was applied, we can assume that the Syouheizaka Gakumonjo functioned as a national university in its era. This is the origin of Tokyo University, which was already flourishing at the same time that  Harvard College was being founded in the United States, in 1636.

4-2. Hanko: once a warrior's school, later a public local university
The term Hanko refers to schools built in each feudal domain to educate children of the warrior aristocracy.  These were largely modeled after the national university, though many of them were based more upon the private home school, and were later transformed into local governmental schools.  Basically restricted to students from the warrior class, some of them nevertheless enrolled common folk who showed exceptional academic promise.  This more egalitarian trend continued and accelerated rapidly toward the end of the isolationist era.
At hanko schools, Chinese Confucian classics and martial arts were taught, but later many of them began including elements of a Western curriculum --  mathematics, medicine, astronomy, foreign language and military studies. Students' age range was approximately from  seven to 16, and the total number of schools was about 250.
 

4-3. Gougaku: Village School
Gougaku means "village school" (either public or private). Some were founded directly by the feudal government, and others had private sponsorship. Unlike the private home school (Terakoya), these needed official permission to operate, and the average academic level was higher.（＊12）  There were more than 120 Gougaku before the revolution in 1868.

4-4. Terakoya: Private "Home School" for ordinary children
Originally attached to the temple school during the medieval era, private home  schools for ordinary people (terakoya) began to address the need for practical education among ordinary people, which arose with increased economic development.  The home  schools had a wide variety of founders: medical doctors, Shinto priests, calligraphers, warrior aristocrats.
According to remaining records, the number of these home school was 15,000 before the revolution. However, there were many non-reported schools, so we must assume that there were perhaps twice that number.（＊13）  In such a home school, both boys and girls learned writing, reading and calculation. Both the Gougaku village school and the Terakoya  home school became the basis for the elementary school after Japan opened to the West in 1868.

4-5. Shijuku : Private Home Schools as Higher Educational Institutes
Various scholars across a wide range of specialties opened private, "advanced" home schools (Shijuku) for young and older adults in Edo period.  These were devoted not only to Confucianism or Japanese classics,（＊14） but also to Western studies.  Among these were Syoukason Juku founded by Yoshida Shouin, Narutaki Juku founded by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold and Teki Juku founded by Ogata Kouan. By early in the 19th century, these advanced home schools reached a total number of 1482.
These advanced home schools enrolled not only the warrior aristocracy, but also well-connected ordinary people.  In those days, during the isolationist era,  the national schools rather neglected technology, science and Western medicine, attaching great importance only to traditional Confucianism and Chinese medicine. Traditional Confucianism was politically useful for maintaining the feudal system, and  the established medical doctors in the government were influential advocates of the Chinese medicine system.
Yoshida Shouin, founder of an advanced home school, Syoukason Juku, saw that military power must depend on the nation's scientific and technological capability, especially after he saw the American warship commanded by Commodore Perry. He well understood the necessity of military modernization to avoid being colonized, and he started to teach politics, mathematics and science. Many of his students became leaders of the next revolutionary government, such as Itoh Hirobumi and Takasugi Shinsaku.
Although the government had generally rejected Western thinking for reasons of cultural pride, they did realize the value of Western medicine.  Despite the fact that  isolationist sentiments remained strong, the government allowed the Dutch doctor Siebold, formerly with the Dutch East India Company, to found a school of  Western medicine at Nagasaki.  Many students were enrolled.
Ogata Kouan, founder of the Teki Juku advanced home school, taught not only Dutch medicine but a full offering of Dutch studies.  One of Siebold's daughters studied with him.  In contrast to the Shoukason Juku, whose graduates became politicians, Ogata Koan's students were active in various fields, and included the founder of the modern Japanese army and the philosopher Fukuzawa Yukichi. Fukuzawa, having benefited from his experience at Teki Juku, later set up Keio Gijuku ( later Keio University).
At the time,  Western studies were becoming very trendy. The teacher was both owner and manager of the home school. In addition, the origin of the national university, Shoheizaka Gakumonjo, was private and it enrolled every class of people, including one woman student.（＊15） In this respect, it can be said that the Shijuku, the private advanced home school, operated as a kind of "civic university" in this era, as its graduates were the ones who carried the load of the next era on their shoulders .（＊16）
 

4-6. Yo Gakko: School of Western Study
As the isolationist period was drawing to an end, Western study, especially English study, flourished more and more.
The Bakufu government had founded Tenmonkata, the research center of astronomy, and had taken charge of other research projects, such as geography, the translation of Western books, and foreign diplomacy.  In 1856, the organization was reformed into a center of Western study and research, and renamed Bansho Shirabesyo, Western Research Center. Later on, this was renamed Kaisei jo and became the basis for Tokyo Imperial University.
Another national Western study center, Igakusyo, was a medical center, which originated as a private clinic where Itoh Genboku began vaccination. Later on, it became the Bakufu's governmental institute and, in 1861, renamed Seiyoh Igakusyo, Western Medical Center. Then it was once again renamed Igakusyo and became a basis for the department of medicine in Tokyo Imperial University.
One of these above advanced home schools, Fukuzawa's Keio Gijuku, founded in 1868, was also a private school of Western study.
 

5.Summary
The Harvard scholar Samuel P. Huntington has recently classified world civilizations into nine areas: Euro-American, Latin-America, Russian Orthodox, Islamic, Hinduism, Buddhism, Africa, China and Japan. Within these, China and Japan are distinguished from others in one interesting respect. In China and Japan, although religion was adapted to existing culture and was used as a sort of instrument for politics, religion never became the basis of civilization, in the way that it did in the case of the others.（＊17）In Japan, the institutions of higher education have never held power comparable to the power of any religion, and the power of religion itself has never even approached that of the government.（＊18）
Here, it should be noted once again that religion did not significantly influence the development of Japan's education. Since degrees had been conferred by the government for a thousand years, the university and college were a part of a national system and never had power independently of the government. Religion's appearance is, as with the Daigaku Ryo, more a matter of rote formalism and mechanical institutionalization.
On the other hand, in the private sector, the appearance of the private educational institute has been more natural and autonomous. These schools were mainly for ordinary people and were free from the government's control as long as they offered only general education at the ordinary level.  However, if the private school grew, it was because it served the needs the state; and if not, it was often disbanded. So the private school could grow only with the good patronage of  the government.
Another point worth noting here is that mass education was always conducted by private schools, but with time, some governmental institutes enrolled gifted ordinary people. In Japan it can be said that private schools have always led the way in improving the social status of the ordinary population.
Looking back over the country's history, Japan's educational system has been formed by both the top-down dynamics of national policy, and the bottom-up dynamics of private organization. For more than a thousand years, the national schools and the private schools have developed in tandem.
The Japanese have always imported elements of foreign cultures and integrated them into existing tradition.  The Japanese have learned from foreign countries, mainly China -- a fact that contrasts strongly with the ethnocentrism prevalent on the mainland. (The Chinese word for "China" means "the central brilliance.") Take for example the Japanese practice of  foreign language mastery. When studying another culture, translating into Japanese takes too long and risks conceptual distortion; therefore, students who would master knowledge of another culture must do so in the original tongue.

The preceding is an overview of the development of education in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration, the end of isolationist era.  Within a short period after the Meiji revolution, the new government began to establish Japan's modern educational system, importing a number of foreign systems and elements. These  would develop into modern Japan's system of institutionalized education.

1 Introduction
Since the advent of the modern era in Japan, educational reforms have occurred twice under the influence of the United States.  First, there was the political revolution in the latter half of the 19th century in Japan, called the Meiji Restoration; and secondly, there was the American occupation after Japan's defeat in 1945. The first reform was occasioned by Commodore Perry, who sailed into Uraga bay with four armed warships and obliged Japan to open its doors to trade with the United States.  At this point, it became painfully apparent to the Japanese that colonization by Western countries was imminent unless Japan was prepared to resist. Ironically, perhaps, this meant that Japan would need to absorb the very basis of the culture they were resisting -- namely, science and technology -- and this meant adopting as well the Western model of education.（＊19）
This great change began in 1868, with the Restoration itself, and proceeded with the adoption of modern educational institutions in 1872. This is generally considered to be the most successful example of its kind in history.（＊20）The university, "throughout American history, has often been looked upon as an instrument of social reform,"（＊21）but Japan is the prime example of this development.（＊22）  As we shall see, this is a major reason for the high degree of formalization we see even today in the Japanese system: the major structural elements were put in place by explicit design, all at the same time.
The modern educational system in Japan is modeled on a Western pattern, but there are various opinions on what that precise pattern was. Although Ruth Benedict says that it is quite similar to the French system,（＊23）American influences can also be seen, especially in the private school sector.（＊24）  Moreover, as in the United States, many Japanese studied abroad in Germany in the last half of the 19th century, to learn medicine and later law -- a fact that was influential as well. Industry and technical education were influenced by England, and medicine had already been influenced by Holland for some time. In short, Japan selected from an array of Western possibilities, and the result was a hybrid system.（＊25）
However, let's restate an important point already made in our first chapter.  Even when informed by political revolution or foreign occupation, education at its most basic level, as a broad cultural function, cannot be radically transformed overnight.  Education, like all social functions, is formed over many centuries.
In fact, the Japanese government found a new form for the old cultural ways, and in the process instituted the new-modern system, whose apex was the modern Japanese university. Thus, this educational revolution can be understood in part as an imported Western design placed upon an indigenous tradition.  This was a considerable accomplishment, requiring not only strong leadership and rich resources, but also a considered strategy of making the most of the pre-existent cultural material, as it was already present in the private sector.  All this occurred in a typically ambiguous, Japanese fashion, which worked not only to accommodate the frictions inherent in such a cultural convergence, but also to nurture the educational system in a tightly integrated and centrally guided manner.
This chapter presents an overview from the first stage of this educational formation to its completion and focuses not only on the advent of Japan's modern university but also on the further development of a peculiar higher educational institute, Senmon Gakko.

2. Educational Changes during the Meiji Restoration
With the restoration of imperial rule in October, 1867, and the reestablishment of the imperial regime in December, the capital moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. The following year, the new government began planning the modern university as both the summit of academic life and the center of administrative control.  This modern revolution was specifically designed to ensure the "reestablishment of the imperial regime," and its highest governing principle -- reverence for the Emperor -- cast the entire modernization movement in a reactionary mode. In 1868 (the first year of the Meiji Dynasty), the government appointed Yano Harumichi, a prominent conservative scholar in classical Japanese studies, to submit a model for a university system.  His own plan, drawn from a 5th-century model, was ultimately rejected, but its very submission established the tone of the eventual design.
In the same year, the government began the university program. Between June and September, it  reestablished Syoheikou (formerly Syouheizaka Gakumonjo, the previous government's bureaucrat training center), Kaisei Gakko (formerly Kaiseijo, the previous school of Western studies) and Igakko (formerly Igakusyo, previously the government's school of medicine). The very next year, the government announced plans to combine these three into "the great school" -- Daigakko (meaning, more or less, "university"). In July, 1869, as a part of the governmental institutional reform, the Daigakko was established as the educational administration office, with Matsudaira Yoshinaga as its chief director. He was, in current terminology, both the minister of education and the rector of the university.  A southern and an eastern university were also established.（＊26） Under this reform, the main campus had two departments: the study of "Japanese Shinto theology" and "moral-study and the study of history and literature."  The academic focus of the southern university and the eastern university was also designated: the former was for the study of law, science, and philosophy, and the latter was for medicine.  Today we would say that the main university was the central bureaucratic training center and the governmental office, and the other two campuses were branch colleges. The classification here was decidedly Western in form but traditional in content.
The main campus, as the former bureaucratic training center, was heavily influenced by Confucianism, and initially many of the most conservative scholars in classical Japanese studies were retained here.  (Confucianism had been the main ideological support for the old warrior aristocracy.)  Soon, however, conflict erupted, largely over the growing influence of modern Western studies.  This made it impossible to maintain the function of the main campus, which closed in 1871 with the establishment of the ministry of education. (The southern university and the eastern university were renamed as the south school (Nanko) and east school(Tohko).) At this point, then, the very designation of "university," Daigaku,  for a time disappeared.（＊27）
 

3. Gakusei -- The School System Ordinance of 1872
3-1: The Ministry of Education
The government set up the Ministry of Education on July 18th, 1871 and began establishing nation-wide control over the educational administration, with the abolition of the university.  According to the regulations governing "the organization of Meiji 4" (1871), the office appointed as administration officers the court nobles, and as teachers a Greater Doctor, a Doctor and an Associate Doctor; a Greater Professor, a Professor and an Associate Professor. Here, as in former times, the word "Doctor" (Hakase) was a bureaucratic position. And as a result of the recent disruptions, the advocates of classical Japanese study and Confucianism had been locked out, as Western advocates occupied all major official positions.
The government had envisioned a united educational system. By 1870, it had detailed all-encompassing regulations for all three educational levels: elementary, secondary, and university. This was done with considerable research into the school system of Western countries, and G. F. Verbeck, an American missionary, was even retained as an adviser of the government.
To work out the draft of the school system regulations in 1871, the government appointed seven scholars in Western studies, two in nativist and Chinese studies, and three administrative officers who were former teachers of Western studies. Among these, French studies had a substantial presence among the committee (though German, English and Dutch influences were also felt), and we must assume that this was reflected in the organizational arrangement that emerged from the committee.（＊28）
The resulting system was proclaimed in 1872, in a document consisting of 109 chapters which addressed school districts, schools, teachers, students and exams, study abroad, tuition and so on. The following year two chapters were added which regulated the Senmon Gakko, so that the entire document formed 213 chapters. This was the first appearance of the Senmon Gakko in law.
 

3-2 Behind the School System Ordinance of 1872
Declaration No.214 in 1872 was a preamble to the School System Ordinance. It makes a number of pronouncements.  It declares that people should learn at school to succeed in life and to manage their property responsibly.  Study is no longer only for the warrior aristocracy; and in any event, aristocratic education had only served the explicit interests of the state, and not the individual, so in the end it had not really been a practical education for everyday life.  The aim is universal education: all social classes -- the aristocracy, peasants, technocrats, and merchants; men, women and children --  must go to school. And tuition should be privately funded from individual or family sources because it was considered  wrong to foist educational fees on the nation.（＊29）  (Here we detect the traditional view that governmental funding is restricted to training for the affairs of state, whereas otherwise one's own education is one's own responsibility.)
Thus, the School System Ordinance was a departure from the traditional Confucian view, in two respects: (1)  it mandated equality of social class, and (2) it was structurally modeled after the modern Western system, and justified by utilitarian considerations.
At this point, then, the central authorities ordered local government officials to implement the plan.  This, remarkably, was indeed accomplished, with public elementary and secondary schools established over the entire country.  Some of them were new, but others were reestablished based upon existing schools. Elementary schools were based upon village schools, private small home schools, and some of the private higher educational institutes. The secondary schools were based upon private higher educational institutes and feudal domain schools that were formerly warrior training schools. And all were supervised by the central government. In addition, to train teachers for elementary and secondary schools, the normal school was legally instituted. Teachers of elementary school were required to be "aged older than twenty" and "graduated from secondary school or normal school". An American teacher (M.M. Schott was invited to Tokyo Normal School, so American pedagogy became popular in elementary school.
In the past, the village school and the feudal domain school had each been a kind of public school controlled by the previous government, whereas the other small home schools and the higher educational institutes were private and relatively autonomous, spontaneous institutions. So this move by the central authorities was quite radical, and its actual completion took some time. Some schools such as Keio-Gijuku ( later Keio Univ.) and Doshisya English School(Later Doshisya Univ.) remained private for a while, but they too would be absorbed under governmental control over the next thirty years.
 

3-3 The University Legally Defined
 As noted earlier, the real existence of the university was discontinued, and though the other two schools that once carried the name remained, they were now simply "the Eastern School" and "the Southern School." Nonetheless, in the School System Ordinance, the legal concept of a university was defined: "university is the higher educational institute to teach the advanced subjects of specialty. Its five departments are Science, Chemistry, Law, Medicine and Mathematics. These are mostly four year courses."（＊30）
 

3-4 The Formation of the Senmon Gakko
Two articles were added to the School System Ordinance in 1873. One was for the Senmon Gakko, which would teach "specialty courses in foreign language," and another was for the "Language School," which would function as preparatory for the Senmon Gakko.  The Senmon Gakko was also stipulated for law school, medical school, science school, liberal arts school, mining school (study of mineral science), technical school, agricultural school, dressmaking school and animal medicine school. The requirements for admission were to be as follows: entering students should be elementary school graduates, "older than 16 years," and "graduates of the lower grade of the Language School."
However, when this law was mandated, there were only two national Senmon Gakko, which were Kaisei School (Tokio-Kaisei Gakko, formerly the Southern University) and the Medical School (Igakko, formerly the Eastern University).  Other public (prefectural and municipal) schools and private schools were NOT included in this category of Senmon Gakko. This is to say that in actual practice at this point, what was left of the university system was officially mandated as Senmon Gakko, whereas the concept of university itself was only a legal designation. In addition, all private schools were not legally defined. They were not even "schools" officially.
 The Meiji government, then, intended to educate all its people and foster leaders who were versed in Western studies, especially science and technology. As mentioned earlier, the university was to be the highest institution, after the Western model.  But this presented a problem.  Few if any Japanese had skills in teaching these Western arts and sciences. At the time, in the Kaisei School and the Medical School, almost all teachers were foreigners who taught in their own languages.
It was to produce professors who could teach these majors in Japanese that the government instituted Senmon Gakko. This was to be just a temporary operation.（＊31）Thus, from 1873 to 1877, there were actual university facilities; yet according to "The 50 Year History of Tokyo University," the nation's one and only university came to occupy "some middle existence between university and high school."（＊32）
 On the other hand, the government at the same time was trying to define the legal concept governing the actually existing schools, by locutions like: "Schools which have to be regarded as Senmon Gakko." This classification of "Senmon Gakko -regardable schools (but not official Senmon Gakko)" included the remaining "other private schools" mentioned above (3-2). Within these, there were Keio-Gijuku school, Doshisya English School, locally established public medical schools, and other public and private schools. It is worth emphasizing that even though these schools had no legal status, they were still called Senmon Gakko.（＊33）   Suffice it to say that the Japanese school system, even at this time, was already vague and complicated.
 Thus, the School System Ordinance established the educational system for the entire nation; yet despite some egalitarian tendencies, this was not a unitary system in the American mode.  The Kaisei School and the Medical School were only for leaders of the nation.
The other observation to made here, once again, is that the purpose and status of Senmon Gakko,  even at this early stage, reflect a prevailing ambiguity that we shall see played out in years to come.（＊34）
 

3-5  Practical Educational Institutes Established by Other Governmental Ministries.
 At this time, there were several educational institutes established by other ministries of government. There was a law school established by the Ministry of Jurisdiction, a technical school by the Ministry of Technology, and Komaba agricultural school by the Ministry of Domestic Affairs. Later on, these were transferred to the Ministry of Education and absorbed into Tokyo Imperial University.  And in 1872, the Sapporo agricultural school was established by the Development Department of Hokkaido (the Northern Island of Japan); eventually it too was absorbed into Tohoku Imperial University but later became independent as Hokkaido Imperial University. Although these would later be the origins of the technology and agricultural departments of the university, these for the time being were neither "university" nor official Senmon Gakko.
 

4. Kyoiku Rei -- the school educational system rules of 1879
4-1 Friction and chaos
 As we observed above, The School System Ordinance of 1872 was idealistic, far removed from the reality of people's life.  The government forcibly assumed control over small private home schools and other private schools to establish a centralized, compulsory elementary school system. And while the tuition was the individual parent's responsibility, there was little latitude for individual decision.  For the official school district supervisor was strongly insistent on the need for each child's schooling. Moreover, the curricula were modeled on the Western style, not on traditional Japanese study, and the textbooks were translations from foreign countries -- none of which was generally popular.
 For a population that had until then relied on the abacus, all this was hardly comprehensible.  People were bewildered at the new system. Moreover, in 1873, the military conscription system was introduced as well.  Riots broke out among the peasantry, and in some cities, the elementary school became the target of their indignation.  Many of these schools were burned and destroyed.
 In the arena of higher education, the response was similar in tone if not in actual effect. The advocates of Eastern study, Japanese nativists and Confucianists, arose again to reassert their claims on the curriculum.  The result was a jumble of competing views and visions, as three different notions of culture were advanced simultaneously -- the traditional Confucianism from the last Edo period, the older,  traditional Japanese classicism from the era of the noble aristocracy, and the Western democratic philosophy influenced by the American and French Revolutions.
 
 

4-2 The Inauguration of Tokyo University.
The first change in higher education occurred amid such chaos. In 1877, the government announced the merger of the Kaisei School and the Medical School, to be called Tokyo University, and continued to develop their respective departments -- law, chemistry, technology and medicine. Finally, as the government's plan was becoming actualized, the university was becoming an important center for foreign scholarship, especially as related to modern technology.
 

4-3 The Promulgation of Kyoiku Rei
In 1876, Tanaka Fujimaro had been to the US and closely observed the American system. The next year, he returned to Japan and started to reform the School System Ordinance of 1872. David Murray（＊35） was invited from the U.S. and subsequently submitted his own reform plan, which was completed by Itoh Hirobumi.（＊36）
In 1879, the government abolished the old Ordinance and promulgated Kyoiku Rei, the rules and regulations concerning the school education system. This was modeled after the American system, eliminating the old centralization and establishing a more locally-based educational system.
The schools defined here were "elementary school, secondary school, university, normal school, Senmon Gakko, and other miscellaneous schools."  This was an important change, for it allowed private schools tosubstitute for public elementary schools simply on the condition that the government be officially notified of the private school's status. Most of these private schools turned out to be elementary schools, but some private higher educational schools were still in existence.  More importantly, the schools submitted as "other miscellaneous schools" included the private higher educational institute (Shijuku,-- including today's private universities.) that was continued from the closed-door period. This legal definition of "other miscellaneous schools" is the origin of today's official "Miscellaneous School."
 As for the national educational system, the government decided to adopt the "Board of Education" system instead of the official public district supervisor. Tuition was abolished as well.  This, of course, was modeled after the American system. But, much as this liberalization seemed an improvement on paper, its implementation posed serious problems once again. Local educators and public officers, who were only recently charged with pushing forward the previous system, were perplexed by yet another radical change, and the result was plagued by such a deficit of funds that many schools were closed. Attendance decreased.  It became rapidly apparent that the social infrastructure was not yet ready to adopt such measures, and the new system lasted only one year.
 

4-4 Revised rules and regulations
At the time of dramatic change and confusion, the preoccupation with Westernization at first overemphasized intellectual training, and virtually ignored training in basic morality and custom, especially in such matters as loyalty and filial piety.  Then in 1880, the revised Kyouiku Rei attached great importance to vocational and practical education, which called for the cultivation of the more custom-laden social skills and attitudes.  With this change in focus, the government moved to undermine the growing movement towards individual rights inherent in the influences from France and America, and at the same time worked to raise school attendance.
  Kyoiku Rei was revised again in 1885, amid a major economic depression. Elementary tuition was reinstated because the prefecture governments were under financial pressure. They again adopted the public official supervisor of the school district, and the "Board of Education System " was abolished.  All was not lost, however.  Though the establishment or abolition of any public school required permission by the Minister of Education, no such restriction was placed upon the private schools, which still needed only to fulfill the requirement of notification. And, again, the new system attached greater importance to vocational education, mandating the Agricultural School, Commercial School and Technical School.（＊37）
 

4-5 Higher Education
 During this same period, Senmon Gakko was legally re-defined. According to the regulation, the university was to be the place where "specialty majors are taught," whereas  Senmon Gakko was to be the place where "a specialty major is taught." In other words, Senmon Gakko meant a single major "college."（＊38）   The other miscellaneous schools remained as yet legally undefined.
 In 1879, the Ministry of Education published statistics that showed the total number of Senmon Gakko to have reached 62. However, two years later, in the "1881 Statistics by the Ministry of Education," the number of Senmon Gakko dramatically decreased, but only because here they counted many public and private Senmon Gakko as "other miscellaneous schools."（＊39）It was in the 1881 statistics that the category of "other miscellaneous schools" was first actually put to use, with the comment that "this category includes schools that have not fully met the strict legal requirements, and so cannot be included in any official category."（＊40）
Despite the legal definitions, all such schools were popularly referred to as just Senmon Gakko,  whether national, public or private -- which in effect included all higher education except for Tokyo University.
 Many schools were founded in this period, and the situation was not much different from today in at least one respect: these schools were commonly adopted as "safety" schools in case of failure on the entrance examination to Tokyo University.  These included Tokyo Law School (later Hosei University, established in 1879), Sensyu School (Sensyu University, 1889), Meiji Law School(Meiji University, 1881), Tokyo Senmon Gakko (Waseda University, 1882), Kansai Law School (Kansai University, 1886), and Nippon Law School (Nippon University, 1889).  The reason for such a proliferation of law schools was that they functioned as test-coaching schools for lawyer license qualification exams, made professionally attractive because the modern legal system was evolving quite rapidly, with increased awareness of the legal issues raised by the movement for democratic rights.
Legal institutionalization encouraged the establishment of schools, but these were always national and public schools.  Private schools generally preceded complex institutionalization and seemed to adapt rather flexibly to whatever the social situation demanded. This is clearly shown by the high enrollment figures in these law schools, as compared to the limited enrollment in Tokyo University.  Thus the so-called Senmon Gakko in general functioned as an effective, second-tier system of higher education.
 

5. The School Ordinances of 1886
5-1 The Birth of the Imperial University
 The second big change occurred in 1886, when Mori Arinori, the Minister of Education, abolished Kyoiku Rei and substituted four Imperial decrees concerning "Elementary School Ordinance," "Secondary School Ordinance," "Imperial University Ordinance," and "Moral School Ordinance."  He redesigned Tokyo University into the Imperial University and established five new senior secondary schools.  This educational system became the basis for many years of subsequent reforms. Minister Mori's educational plan did not encourage "education for its own sake," as had been the case in the  first School System Ordinance (3-2 above), but had a national agenda to promote the country's wealth and industrial strength. The Imperial University Ordinance, decreed in March, stipulated that the purpose of university was "to serve the needs of the state."  National progress was a national imperative.（＊41）  Mori did not regard each school as an independent entity but emphasized the interrelations of schools within a pyramidal system whereby highly promising students were systematically funneled toward the top of the institutional hierarchy.
 The Imperial University was formed by the graduate schools into a high-level research center, and colleges were envisioned as educational institutes for the application and dissemination of established theory.  Colleges had five majors: law, medicine, technology, literature and science.  The Medical College offered a four-year course. Other college programs were three years, and the graduate school was to be two years. In 1890, after the agricultural college was founded, the Imperial University comprised six departments.
  Although neither the US nor Japan immediately shared in the European Industrial Revolution, afterwards both countries took advantage of technological innovation, and this was the social and economic basis for the educational revolutions in both. The Imperial University, the apex of the educational institutes, originally included a technology department and later added an agricultural department and was the first university in the world (outside the U.S.) to have both departments. This echoes the American land grant colleges under the Morril Act (1862),（＊42） and differed substantially from both traditional European universities and the established American universities, such as Columbia and Harvard, that attached greater importance to Liberal Arts than practical and professional education.  In Germany, technology and agricultural departments had been purged. In the U.S., on the other hand, land grant colleges were accommodating the needs of vocational education (Ivy League colleges, proudly, were not).  On just this point, however, there was a striking difference between the US and Japan. In the US,

 the land grant movement came in response to the rapid industrial and agricultural development of the United States that attained such momentum in the middle of the last century. Universities were to assist this development through training that went beyond the creation of 'gentlemen,' and of teachers, preachers, lawyers, and doctors; through research related to the technical advance of farming and manufacturing; through service to many and ultimately to almost all of the economic and political segments of society.（＊43）

In Japan, on the other hand, when the government established Tokyo Technical School,  Hamao Shin (who later became the rector of the Imperial University) declared that "in our country, ----- we did not establish  technical schools to serve existing industry, but we first established technical schools and then produced many influential graduates to establish industrialization."（＊44）

At the time, there were graduate schools only in the US. Therefore, it is clear that the graduate schools of the Imperial University were modeled after the US. However, in contrast to their American predecessors, the Japanese adopted the lectureship-based credit system (which suggests the European model of "Chair").  And the department system was also modeled after the German. In addition, the notion that the apex of the system should be a national university was German as well.
It is well-known that Berlin University, established by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1809, became the model of the new university in the world.（＊45）  The Japanese Prime Minister, Itoh Hirobumi, who nominated Mori Arinori as Minister of Education, had been to Europe to research the legal system, and to establish a constitutional monarchy in 1882. In Germany, he learned public law from well-known figures of the day,  who not only lectured on the importance of general education but also strongly emphasized the importance of the university as a centralizing bureaucratic training center.（＊46）
So it was that Japan imported the system and general idea behind the German national university, and combined that with an emphasis upon practical technological training (which was separated in Germany into the Hochshule). However, since there was fierce competition to enter the university, other private higher educational institutes accepted a large number of candidates. And those private schools, the Senmon Gakko and "other miscellaneous schools," were left free to operate pretty much on their own, and thus developed in many ways similar to private-sector educational institutions in the US.
 

5-2 Ordinances of the Elementary, Secondary and Normal Schools
 The elementary schools were also being systemized more and more. The elementary school was organized into two four-year levels, and school was compulsory for all children aged six to ten. After 1900  tuition was once again abolished, at which point school attendance increased dramatically, reaching 95% of eligible children in 1905. Compulsory lower grade attendance was expanded to six years in 1907.
 The secondary school was stipulated "to educate students who get a job or proceed to higher education."  The requirement was that the student be an elementary graduate older than 12.  Secondary education was divided into two levels; five years at the junior level and two years as a senior.  Five senior secondary schools were established nationally, and 50 junior secondary schools were established in each prefecture. The senior secondary school was specifically aimed at advancing upper-class students.  Eventually renamed "high school," it functioned as an elite prep school (Kyusei Kouto Gakko) for university-bound students.
 Thus, from elementary through junior secondary and senior secondary school, and on to the Imperial University, a four-tiered system was established.
 Normal schools were systemized along with elementary and secondary schools. Normal schools were divided into two levels, whose curriculum and operation resembled a military academy and whose graduates were highly nationalistic in personal attitude.  Mori strongly believed that this approach enhanced efficiency.
 

5-4 Academic Results
 Initially, modern academic research was conducted mainly by invited foreign scholars at the national university.  After about twenty years following the establishment of the modern university, Japanese scholars had gained academic skills sufficient to conduct independent research. Many academic associations were founded.  English and American studies were popular in the areas of social science and liberal arts, but later, German study became predominant due certainly to its nationalistic bent.  In the area of Japanese classical studies, Western research methodologies in literature and history were introduced with good results. In the fields of science, medicine, pharmacology, astronomy, seismology and physics, Japanese scholars soon attained world-class expertise. Such a rapid improvement was no doubt due to the fact that all the country's  rich cultural resources were assembled at one national university.
 

5-5 The Constitution of the Great Japanese Empire and the Imperial Rescript on Education
The Constitution of the Great Japanese Empire was promulgated on the 11th of November, 1889. It proclaimed the divinity of the Emperor and specified that sovereignty rests with him alone.  The constitutional aspect of government was based upon the relative independence of legislative, executive, and judiciary branches of government. And the citizens' franchise was mandated.
Educational regulation was not included in the Constitution but belonged to the Emperor's discretionary purview, as specified in Article 9.  Educational matters were ordained not by legislation but by Imperial edict, on the explicit grounds that education promotes the happiness of the people. Education was thus too vital a matter to be given over to political infighting, which would only weaken administrative power.
Imperial absolutism had by now taken a firm hold only among the elite, so to encourage popular acceptance, the Imperial Rescript on Education was proclaimed. The rescript said first that "We [the royal singular] think that the origin of education lies in the splendid national conditions engendered by the noble tie between Emperor and people."  And it itemized the virtues people should keep, which became the basis for moral education throughout the land. In the Imperial Rescript we see the typical Japanese combination of feudal Confucianism and modern constitutional monarchy.  It was committed to memory and recited by all students in the elementary and secondary grades. Emperor, as the highest authority, functioned as a symbolic goad to educational attainment.
 

5-6 Education and Industrialization
From the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the promotion of industry had been made the basis of public policy, and came to fruition in the Japanese "industrial revolution" of the 1890s. In 1890, Inoue Kowashi assumed Mori's position as Minister of Education and made industrial education an even greater priority, with the more practical aspects of science taking prominence in the curriculum.  During this same period, many of the legal regulations for vocational education were legislated and their mandates institutionally enacted. This was to supplement the deficiencies of Mori's educational administration by adapting the system more closely to the actual societal circumstance, giving birth to the Industry Schools Ordinance, the Agricultural Supplementary School, and the Technical Supplementary School.
Thus, once again, we have here a closely managed hierarchy, from the technology department of the Imperial University, down through Senmon Gakko, and finally to these Industry Schools, education of technology and industry.
 
 

5-7 The Empire Educational System
 The completed hierarchical system was such that, at the elementary level, loyalty and patriotism were well taught to all students. The brighter students were encouraged to pursue higher education, and the truly exceptional were funneled toward a common apex at the Imperial University.
 This was a rather remarkable achievement, accomplished under a unique fusion of constitutional mandate and absolutist edict, whose abstract formulation, in the Imperial Rescript on Education, reflected the triadic convergence of traditional Confucianism, Imperial Japanese classicism, and Western modernism.  The four social classifications in the previous Edo period were replaced by an intellectual hierarchy spurred on by the twin goals of technological revolution and social reform. These efforts paid off handsomely in very short order, for in 1905, Japan shocked the world by defeating Russia  in a brief but momentous conflict, and thereby became a world power -- which could hardly have been accomplished without the success of educational reform.（＊47）
 In 1897, Kyoto Imperial University was founded and at the same time the Imperial University itself was renamed Tokyo Imperial University. Kyoto Imperial University, established upon the facilities of the number three high school (former senior secondary school) in Kyoto, offered courses in law, literature, medicine and science and technology.  In 1907, Tohoku Imperial University was founded. Kyusyu Imperial University followed in 1910, and later in 1918, Hokkaido Imperial University, formerly a department of Tohoku Imperial University, came into being. This brought the total number of national universities to seven.
 

6. Private Schools
6-1 Philosophies of the Private School
 Naturally, in the wake of such a rapidly evolving national educational system, competing philosophies of education arose. Among the "'other miscellaneous schools," Tokyo Senmon Gakko (established 1882, later Waseda University), Doshisya English School (1875, later Doshisya University), and Keio-Gijuku (1858, later Keio University) had developed distinguished philosophies of education concerning not only public but also private education. Nagai Michio designated these three as the "Liberal Faction,"（＊48） and they remain even today flagship private universities in Japan.
 As mentioned above, many of the private schools that functioned as second-rank higher educational institutes brought opportunities to people who had failed the entrance exam to the Imperial University. These did little more than follow the national school agenda. Nagai classifies these schools as the "Adaptation Faction." There were other private schools which Nagai groups into the "Traditional Faction," which were more conservative than the national schools that Mori had planned and reflected the general cultural spirit of the nation by attaching greater importance to Japanese Classicism and Asian spirit.
But there were actually three models for Japan's private schools distinguished by Nagai. The greatest legacy in the educational history of Japan was prepared by the founders and advocates of the three schools classified as the Liberal Faction, such as Tokyo Senmon Gakko(Waseda), Keio and Doshisya, which developed as follows.
From its founding, Tokyo Senmon Gakko espoused openly the principle of "Academic Independence." Ohkuma and his advocate Ono Azusa declared that academic autonomy and freedom could never obtain at the national university as long as it was governed by the interests of national political power, where academic concerns must be secondary to political considerations. They concluded, then, that the  university must be independent from the government.
As noted earlier here, it was common to conduct classes in a foreign language at higher educational institutes in Japan.  However, all courses at Tokyo Senmon Gakko were taught in Japanese, as a means of factoring away the undue influence of non-native culture.
 The founder Ohkuma was a powerful politician. He had been purged from political life in a cabinet reshuffle in 1881, when Itoh Horobumi and his allies controlled the Cabinet. As mentioned earlier, Itoh Hirobumi later became the Prime Minister, and Mori Arinori, his Minister of Education, established the Imperial University. At that point, Ohkuma spirited away many of Tokyo University's graduates to establish his own private school. Although the school professed independence from politics, all this earned the school notoriety as an anti-government enclave.
 During this entire period, political alliances were being continually reconstructed, even in the national assembly, and thus evolved some sensitive and complicated relations between anti-government politics and higher education, which were played out in terms of the philosophies of politics and academic autonomy.
 Ohkuma had let his ally Ono Azusa manage the school. Ohkuma, after many years, returned to political power and twice took the position of Prime Minister. However, to express the separation between education and politics, he never during this time set foot in his own school, except for some special ceremonial days, even though the school was located in front of his own home!（＊49）
 Niijima Jo, the founder of Doshisha University, smuggled himself into the US in his youth during the isolationist era. He studied at Amherst College and raised contributions at church for a Christian school he later founded in Kyoto. As a pious Christian, he aimed to realize God's kingdom on earth by educating his countrymen in Christianity. This school was also considered anti-government and was persecuted because its founder was a stowaway and a Christian.
 In contrast, Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio-Gijuku,  attached great importance to commercial science and Western medicine. He founded a school of commercial science in 1853 (before the Meiji revolution) and a medical school in 1873.  In 1890, he opened a college department in his school. He sponsored an American professor and started practical education at the college level. (He and Mori Arinori were good comrades in their youth, having organized together an academic society named "Meirokusya.") Philosophically, Fukuwzawa was a scientific rationalist and pragmatist, as was Mori, but the big difference was that Fukuwzawa advocated elimination of governmental interference in education. He promoted education for the middle class, believing that civilization was not properly directed by government bureaucrats but rather, to a great extent, by the intelligence of the majority, middle class people. This contrasted with Mori's idea that the mission of university was to foster an elite national leadership.
 Each of these private school founders had his own doctrine and philosophy whereas many other private schools were simply following the national consensus of the day. As it turned out, these three liberal private schools remain today a shining example of what a top-ranked school can be, and it seems likely that the strong philosophical foundation their founders brought to their work was a prime factor in the durability of their projects.
 These three private school leaders were more or less influenced by the American conception of the university. And even today these "private institutions must struggle individually to stay alive, like poorly endowed private institutions in the United States."（＊50）  Here we can see some of the respects in which private sector education in Japan bears important similarities to that in the US, especially as this reflects the underlying fact that the vision behind the private school is diametrically opposed to the intentions behind the centralized national educational system.
 

6-2 The Senmon Gakko Ordinance of 1899 and Private Institutes.
 During the establishment of the national educational system, the government's policy toward the private school was "no support and no control." These private institutions were not legal universities.  What this means is that these schools did not have the right to confer degrees. There were differences in the status of their students, such as the temporary exemption from conscription fully enjoyed only by students at the national university. Another difference concerned the national examination for qualification in fields such as medicine. Only Imperial University graduates holding the bachelor's degree were exempt from many examinations. So the effort to receive an official mandate as a university had become more and more urgent. This would foreshadow a subtle change in governmental policy over thirty-five years, from "no support and no control" to "no support but control."（＊51）
 The first comprehensive regulation for the private school was the Private School Ordinance of 1899. This mandate was occasioned by an amendment to a treaty among Japan, England, the US, France and Germany, which abolished consul jurisdiction and achieved a partial recovery of tariff autonomy. At this point, the government assumed that many foreigners would be moving into Japan, bringing with them a number of foreign schools. This suggested the need to supervise such foreign schools, so as not to vitiate the cultural autonomy of the Japanese people.（＊52）
 According to the Private School Ordinance, the private school was to be supervised by local officials, requiring government permission to open. Similarly, any change of ownership or any plan to close required official notification. And the qualifications for principal, vice-principal and teachers were more or less mandated. All this was instituted in the interest of cultural defense and was not directly related to any plans for systemizing the private school.
 

6-3 The Promulgation of the Senmon Gakko Ordinance of 1903
So far, the government had been trying to control private schools by very selectively offering exemption from military service and from some national examinations, and only a few private schools enjoyed such privileges. Private schools received legal status, and the government began to systemize the private school, with the following mandate.
 In 1903, the "Promulgation of the Senmon Gakko Ordinance" for higher educational institutes other than the university was proclaimed. This law and the ministerial order, the "Regulation for Public and Private Senmon Gakko," has had the longest life among the country's educational laws. Until the abolition of Senmon Gakko at the end of the Second World War, and except for minor changes, the basic institutional regulations for Senmon Gakko remained encoded in this regulation.
 By this law, various schools were unified into one category and "the Industry Schools Ordinance" (5-6) was abolished.  These Industry Schools came to be included in the designation of Senmon Gakko. The legally defined category of study at Senmon Gakko included not only law, medicine, economics, commercial science and so on, but also other studies such as art and music. A great many private schools were approved under this mandate. In addition, some of the women's schools were approved as well.  These were the Japan Women's School (later Japan Women's University), the Women's English School (later Tsudajuku University) and the Tokyo Women's Medicine Senmon Gakko (Tokyo Women's Medical University). With this regulation, all private and public higher educational institutes were approved as Senmon Gakko.
 According to the Senmon Gakko Ordinance, Senmon Gakko enroll graduates from secondary schools or from four-year middle educational institutes (or the equivalent), and would offer courses of more than three years, and would also include higher educational institutes that teach advanced art and science.  The school could install prep school, postgraduate, or other major courses.  To be approved, public and private schools had to complete the procedures outlined and then needed to be authorized by the Minister of Education.
 The regulations for public and private Senmon Gakko also prescribed the school's facilities and equipment, teacher qualifications and enrollment qualifications. (This way of regulation is the origin of the current university's approval procedure.) The government prescribed the entrance examination for Senmon Gakko enrollment.
 The enrollment capacity for Senmon Gakko was governmentally mandated. The school was required to follow basic land and building requirements, including instruments and other necessary facilities. A teacher was required to hold a bachelor's degree from the Imperial University or else be a returning graduate from study abroad; otherwise special permission by the Minister of Education was needed. (This limited the supply of teachers rather drastically.)  Students who did not graduate from formal secondary school had to pass the national proficiency examination held by the Ministry of Education.
 The regulation for public and private Senmon Gakko did not prescribe the ratio of full-time teachers to students, so that Senmon Gakko began to depend on part-time teachers. Naturally, the quality of these schools was inferior to that of the national schools.  Nevertheless, since many Senmon Gakko were night schools, they met the needs of people that the public school could not satisfy. Consequently, the government actually depended on these institutes to supplement an educational deficiency by very economical means.  But the government could maintain the quality of education only by regulating and controlling, without providing any financial support. Behind all these movements, we can discern the traditional Confucian regard for education, which encouraged the common dream among the young to get highly educated and grab the higher-status position.
 By this time, more than half the higher education students were enrolled in the private sector. According to statistical data published by the Ministry of Education in 1902, the number of students in national Senmon Gakko was 6,206 and that of public Senmon Gakko was 1,829; but private Senmon Gakko had registered 15,393 students (65%).（＊53）  Although these data include overlapping students who were in attendance at more than one institution, we cannot fail to notice the contribution of the private sector.  But if that is not sufficient, consider the Imperial University, whose ratio of graduates was 20%, compared to 80% for Senmon Gakko.（＊54） So more than 50 % of all higher education students were enrolled in the private sector. In addition, there were many miscellaneous private schools not counted in the statistics, which would weigh the final numbers even more on the side of the private sector.
Private Senmon Gakko have never risen to the status of the American Ivy League college, but they were nonetheless only one step removed from the Imperial University. Throughout the period between the Restoration and the Second World War, the ratio of Senmon Gakko graduates to university graduates has always been more than double.（＊55）
Currently, fifty years after the Second World War, 80% of higher education students in the US are in the public sector; on the other hand, in Japan, 80% are in the private sector -- a tendency that dates back to this same period. In Japan, the common majority of citizens have been obliged to obtain their own education through their own expense for more than a thousand years!
 
 

6-4 'University' In Name Only
 Around the time of the Senmon Gakko Ordinance of 1903 (see 6-3), the government began engaging in a semantic juggling act that was remarkable even for a bureaucracy.
 One year before the promulgation, the government was allowing only Tokyo Senmon Gakko to call itself a university, by special exception. The flagship of the private sector, Tokyo Senmon Gakko was officially renamed Waseda University and celebrated in memorable fashion, with the founder Ohkuma and his colleagues dressing in Oxford-style gowns to commemorate the grand event.
 Then, in the following year, the Senmon Gakko Ordinance allowed which ever Senmon Gakko  met certain minimal requirements to assume the university designation, Daigaku.  This move really succeeded in diluting the classificatory system entirely: for here were institutions that were nothing but Senmon Gakko in law, but were allowed to appropriate for themselves the most honorific designation in the institutional vocabulary, with only a rather minor bureaucratic adjustment.  If the school had one or more years of prep school and college-level courses, the government permitted the name change.
 After this revision, many schools were regulated as official Senmon Gakko and some of them applied for the exception that "turned" them into universities.  Following the example of Waseda were Chuoh, Meiji, Rikkyo, Ritsumeikan, Kansai and Doshisya. Other religious schools also followed, such as Ohtani University and so on. By this point, in 1905, the number of the Senmon Gakko classified as  "university" was 15 out of 63.（＊56）
The background behind this rather odd word play, which ignored the otherwise stated regulations governing the Imperial University, is interesting. The Senmon Gakko was classified by its single-departmental structure, as contrasted with the multi-departmental structure of the university (see 4-5 above). The national schools, such as the Law School and the Technical School, formerly classified as Senmon Gakko, came to be absorbed in the Imperial University (see 3-6, and 5-1 above).  At this stage, then, there was no big legal difference between university and Senmon Gakko. So naturally, these national schools demanded to be regarded as universities. For example, one of the national Senmon Gakko, Sapporo Agricultural School,  had even begun rather sophisticated lobbying efforts to win the right to be upgraded to university status.
 In the private sector, as noted earlier, Keio-Gijuku initiated college-level education by an American professor in 1890. Tokyo Senmon Gakko and Doshisya English School had aspired to university status from the very outset, and these three private schools had, as distinct from other private schools, certain particular characters: they had several departments and self-consciously imitated the Western  university ideal. For example, Tokyo Senmon Gakko (Waseda) had established coordinated academic reciprocity with American universities as early as 1899. Columbia University officially regarded the graduate diploma of Tokyo Senmon Gakko as equivalent to the bachelor's, and accepted one of its students into the graduate school (who, the next year, would earn a master's degree from Columbia). The cooperation proceeded with others, such as the University of Chicago in 1901, the University  of Pennsylvania in 1906, and Princeton University in 1908. So Tokyo Senmon Gakko had already established itself as a 'university' outside of Japan.（＊57）
 This policy of "university in name only" was the government's response to reality.  So a two-tiered 'university' designation was invented, which in effect honored the acknowledgement already achieved from foreign institutions, but without altering some of the pre-existent institutional distinctions: these new "universities" still lacked the right of temporary exemption from conscription (guaranteed for Imperial University), and still bore a similar discrepancy when it came to the status for professional licensure.
 

7. The Promulgation of the University Ordinance of 1918
7-1 The Birth of the Private University
 In 1918, year seven of the Taisyoh dynasty, the University Ordinance was promulgated and the private university officially sanctioned.  This was an epoch-making event in the history of higher education in Japan for it enlarged the plan of the university. Up to this point, the full legal status of the university had been limited to the Imperial University. The university normally had to consist of the departments of law, medicine, technology, literature, science, agriculture, economics or commercial science. However, the single-department university (college) was also mandated. Continuous education courses could be offered, in any university. And if needed, the prep school could be installed within the university itself. However, only the Imperial University was allowed to offer a graduate degree program.
 After this promulgation, the top-ranked private Senmon Gakko, which had been "universities in name only," started collecting contributions to expand their facilities to meet the regulation required to be a  university in the full sense.  In the public sector, Osaka Prefecture Medical University in 1919, Aichi Prefecture Medical University in 1920, Kyoto Prefecture Medical University in 1921 and Osaka City University in 1921 were all approved, one after another . In the private sector, Waseda University and Keio University were approved in 1920, and  Chuoh, Hosei, Meiji, Nippon, Kokugakuin, Doshisya followed later in the same year.  In 1920, the total number of national, public and private universities was 16.  The very next year, Tokyo Jikeikai Medical University, Sensyu, Rikkyo, Ritsumeikan and Takusyoku University were approved. In 1930, the total number of every kind of university reached 46.  Prior to this, these schools had not had the legal right to offer the bachelors degree (except for Sapporo agricultural school, one of the public Senmon Gakko that had been approved to do so because it was an important national school).
 According to the promulgation, a private university had to be owned by a non-profit organization. And the organization had to deposit to the government sufficient funds for generating all yearly operating costs through earned interest.
The status of the large Senmon Gakko, with basic facilities and equipment, was upgraded.  But any of the Senmon Gakko that failed to meet the new requirements were prohibited from using the precious name, even if they had been using it over the past fifteen years (see 6-4.) Accordingly, then, the "university in name only" vanished.（＊58）
This policy by the government was severely criticized, as one might well imagine.  However, as a practical matter, once the name had been allowed, it was very difficult to return once again to the abandoned status of Senmon Gakko. This was bound to have a ruinous effect upon enrollment.  In fact, some schools, such as Ritsumeikan "University," resisted this policy.  However, since the school could not  confer degrees, nor reverse the growing public perception that Senmon Gakko were inferior to the university, enrollment plummeted. They were once again obliged to do what they could to meet the statutory demands for university designation.
 This government policy was not intended to upgrade the legal category of Senmon Gakko, only to elevate whichever Senmon Gakko had met the basic requirements of university standing.  The government urged all these private schools to upgrade their quality of education and meet the other regulatory demands.
Looking back fifteen years prior, one can perhaps imagine that even the earlier expansion of the "university" designation was in effect aimed at this eventual promulgation.（＊59）  That may be a reconstruction that works only in hindsight, but in effect the policy was as follows. First, the government lets Waseda, the number one private school, use the name of "university."  The following year, the appearance of the Senmon Gakko Ordinance marks a kind of dual track strategy, where the more solid schools are to follow Waseda's lead into 'university' status, while the others are to become Senmon Gakko. (Each regulation was, of course, more strict than any of the previous private school regulations.)  And then, fifteen years later, the government offers two alternative choices: one is to become a "real" university, according to the stricter requirements, while the other is to bear the loss of the university name altogether.
 Whether by foresight or by happenstance, what the government achieved was an increased reliance upon the private sector, which made possible the creation of a high quality university system.  The number of applicants to higher education was increasing more and more with  economical development. To meet the need, many more Senmon Gakko were founded. Since the promulgation of the Senmon Gakko Ordinance, the 63 existing in 1903 had risen to 101 in 1920; by 1930, the number of Senmon Gakko reached 177. As in the past, these newly established schools adapted to the needs of students who failed their attempts at university entrance.
Once again, this promulgation of the university ordinance produced many new universities; however, the government allowed only the Imperial University to install the graduate school where the doctoral degree is offered, thus preserving the hierarchical advantage enjoyed by the Imperial Universities.
 

7-2 The Weakened Private Sector
 With the promulgation of the university ordinance, Johchi (Sophia) University and Toyoh  University in 1928, along with Kanseigakuin University in 1932, were approved. The number of pre-war private universities reached 28.  However, the birth of the private university caused problems remaining  even to this day.
 First, it was stipulated still that any university was to serve "the needs of the state," and this of course was to apply to these private universities. This meant, in effect, that the private university was to be absorbed into the Empire's educational system. The philosophy and purpose of education came to be strictly controlled by the government.  Naturally, it was impossible for the private sector to protest against this. In addition, the ordinance regulated basic facilities in detail, such as building size, library size and so on. Hiring teachers required permission by the Ministry of Education.
 Second, the obligation of deposit to the government naturally brought economic problems to  the private university.  The required deposit was 500,000 yen ($4,167) for one department, and 100,000 yen ($833) was added for each additional department. In those days, one year's student tuition was 120 yen ($1) at the national school, and in general, the private school's tuition was lower than that. So this was a significant financial strain. According to the record of Waseda University, alumni were organized to raise funds to meet this regulation.  In many private universities, a Senmon Gakko section was even installed on campus, as a kind of cash cow.（＊60）
 Moreover, there was another situation which we can not pass over. The First World War ended in 1918, and thereafter capitalism in Japan developed dramatically.  Before and after this war, Japan's power to compete in the international market was growing significantly. This called upon educational institutes to foster graduates who could adapt to such social needs, but many private schools had difficulty inventing their own programs for this, mainly for economic reasons. So the effect of this was to replicate the same pragmatic deficiencies that the Imperial Universities so proudly exhibited.（＊61） Burton Clark says about this  story the following:

Since the private institutions must struggle individually to stay alive, like poorly endowed private institutions in the United States, trustees and institutional administrators become much involved in the welfare of the enterprise. At the same time, since there exists a powerful central ministry and a prestigious set of national universities that come under the government, the Japanese private sector has not been able, as much as its American counterpart, to avoid governmental pressures and influence. They had to come to an accommodation with the government. T.J.Pempel states that, beginning in 1918, "with the promulgation of the University Ordinance, the private universities were subsumed into the system they had originally been established to counter, and with few exceptions they mollified their high levels of independence from the government."（＊62） There was no Dartmouth College case here legally to run up the banner of private-college independence; the private sector was to be closer to government.（＊63）
 

8. More on "Senmon Gakko"
 Here I examine the concept of the Senmon Gakko. The current translation of the term Senmon Gakko is variously "Professional School," "Special Course School," "Special Training School" or "Vocational School."  Some people claim that the term is similar to the French grande  ecole. However, none of these really conveys the term's real sense. The expression "Senmon Gakko" functions as the opposite of the term "university" in Japan, because it gets applied only to private schools independent from central governmental control.  Let's then trace back the route that led to its widespread usage.
 It is assumed that the word Senmon Gakko gained currency when the government created it in the School System Ordinance in 1872. As noted earlier, the government controlled the nomenclature for  two schools as the basis of the modern university and legally designated them as Senmon Gakko. Afterwards, they combined these two and established the highest educational institute, Tokyo University.
In doing so, the government was placing Senmon Gakko at the very root of the university system.（＊64）   Even if this was intended as a merely temporary policy to create the modern university, these two schools were nonetheless the highest educational institutes of the day. It is no stretch to assume that the notion of Senmon Gakko as a higher educational institute must have been imprinted strongly on the popular consciousness.
 The name "Daigaku" ("university") had already diminished from common usage for hundreds of years by that time. During the Edo period, the era of the closed-door policy, the use of "Daigaku" was not so common, so the term itself was as new as Senmon Gakko, and had similar popular connotation.
After the Senmon Gakko was legally instituted, the momentum built for the growth of Senmon Gakko. In addition, the economic developments leading toward the Second World War influenced this. The number of Senmon Gakko had always been two to fifty times the number of universities.  So the sheer quantity of the existing schools served to re-enforce the popular conception.
 Moreover, after  the private university was born, with the University Ordinance in 1918, the  number of the universities was 16,as compared to 101 Senmon Gakko. In addition, the new universities mostly retained a Senmon Gakko section on campus. All this emphasized in popular consciousness the notion that Senmon Gakko referred to institutions of the second-highest rank.
 And then, to complicate matters even further, Senmon Gakko was not the only vocational school designation.  There were "industry schools" within the category of Senmon Gakko, but there were various other types of schools as well. The translation "vocational school" does not explain all of this complexity.
 In summary, we can certainly say that Senmon Gakko is a school peculiar to Japan, one that was born rather unexpectedly out of the creation of the modern university. Tracing this all back to the starting point of legal definition from the first modern institutionalization, the cause might be that the government attached great importance to defining the national university at the same time it was  virtually ignoring the other schools, the Senmon Gakko in particular.  So some schools simply appropriated for themselves the Senmon Gakko name, and ordinary people took to using that same term to refer to any school other than the official "university."  This was just ten years after the Meiji restoration, and the government, otherwise preoccupied at the time, could hardly have been expected to pay much attention to this. Only many years later, in 1903, did the government begin in earnest its efforts to control the entire system, and only at that point did they begin prohibiting private schools from naming themselves Senmon Gakko if they did not meet the regulation. This awarded a new-found significance to the category, but by that point the schools that already existed as Senmon Gakko constituted a rather motley but entrenched collection, bound together only by what they were not (namely, a "university").
So private schools were ignored and left to themselves. The private sector, not related to this university project, was a kind of jumble of wheat and tares, but it wielded considerable importance simply by virtue of the numbers of schools it by then contained. Burton Clark notes that "perhaps the most fascinating of all the major contradictions is the way that disorderly approaches to system can lead to order and an orderly arrangement can produce disorder."（＊65）  So the durability of Senmon Gakko may have been rather coincidental, perhaps contrary to the government's expectations. An orderly arrangement came about by the intertwined effects of disorderly competition.
 On the other hand, those private schools aimed to become universities, each by its own disorderly strategy. In the early days, some modeled themselves after the American university, and others selected other models. Naturally, the private school has an autogenetic existence little related to governmental policy.  However, for many reasons, socio-economic and so on, each of them finally came to model the national university, which was rapidly being established by national mandate. The more most private schools aimed at university status, the more they came to be similar to the national university.  This was disorderly but efficient development.
   In this way, the national and private schools enjoyed a complementary relationship. The national university would never have developed as it did if the private sector had not developed as well. We see here how even the highest social authority can be modified by developments from below.  And the private university would never have developed as it did if the national system had not offered such a commanding model. This entire story has become a rather fascinating duet, in which Senmon Gakko appears as an overriding motif.
 
 

9. Summary

 In Japan, the private university had grown in its own way, being absorbed into the national system: from the miscellaneous schools, through Senmon Gakko, to the university.  These were all, sometimes haphazardly, regulated at points by the government.
 From Mori's point of view, which aimed at establishing the Empire Educational System after the Promulgation of the University Ordinance, the institutional pyramid was meant to contain even the private sector. Inside of that pyramid was situated a well-balanced dynamic between national, public and private sectors, university and Senmon Gakko.
 Institutional mandates are intended to mould the actual development of institutions.  But if Japan had insisted on imposing an entire institutionalized system before the actual social conditions had permitted, the rapid evolution we have actually witnessed would have been impossible. In Japan, institutionalization has proceeded in tandem with actual institutional growth, by means that were, as often as not, unclearly specified.  And this at least appears to us now almost as a kind of clever strategy designed to provoke, out of the existent social and economic situation, the actual development that bureaucratic mandate alone could never have produced.  In this sense, the educational system and other social realities complemented each other, and both wove the history of the national Empire System.
 The private sector aimed to upgrade itself after the national school's model. For this, the government provided them the authority and legal right. So, too, individuals strive to obtain higher education to better themselves. This we might term the "pull of progress," which operates in Japan at least as a social assumption. And the apex of it all was symbolized by the Emperor. Throughout this entire value hierarchy, the symbolic system of Emperorism had functioned rather effectively -- as when, from elementary school on, everybody was to memorize and recite the Imperial Rescript on Education; to the high point symbolized by The Grace Silver Watch,（＊66） given to the highest scoring graduates at the best universities. All education had, after all, been defined by Imperial edict, and that heralded the fact that all value judgements were to be well controlled by the system.
The elite leaders were fostered by the Imperial University, and the second-tier level, larger in number, were produced from Senmon Gakko. This educational hierarchy transferred to that of society, to the point where a war was launched not so much on the basis of superior armaments, but on the organizing spirit of the Kamikaze. In impressive fashion, Japan managed to establish a basic hierarchy of national education within a miniscule 30 years since the revolution and to solidify this hierarchy in the next 20 years by absorbing the private sector.（＊67）
 Because of the government's policy, the private schools had been left in a rather poor state. Yet sweet are the uses of adversity; for the private sector managed nonetheless to flourish along its own course. It supported the elite by its large numbers, made possible because of the fact that the size of the national sector was intentionally kept quite small.  Such a remarkable situation reflects the spirit of "Private School People," the pride of the middle class who support society at their own expense. The middle class have become the strong organizing power of the nation.
 It is easy to severely criticize these policies through these several decades; however, hindsight is always best, and one has to wonder what alternative would have worked better in the face of the demand for rapid modernization. There was simply no other precedent for this kind of case, and at any rate, it did indeed suffice.
 In the Far East, where the sun rises, such a modern educational system was created and brought to completion. It developed rapidly and accomplished social reform rapidly, just as the sun rises rapidly in the early morning. Yet the sunshine makes a shadow, as Yin accompanies Yang.（＊68） From that perspective, the autocratic national system arose only within the shine and shadow of its counterpart, the Senmon Gakko.

1. Introduction
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, those miserable calamities, ended the Second Wold War.  The workings of educational institutes were already halted under the relentless school bombardings which, by the War's end, had reached 4,096.  Japan by this time was scorched earth.
 The pre-war educational system had been both cause and result of one of the most remarkable processes of modernization the world had ever seen.  But despite the very efficient instrument for social reform that had emerged, the use to which it was largely put was entirely problematic.  The social result was the consolidation of militaristic nationalism, which itself had been a major cause of the war. Mark T. Orr, the chief of the education branch of the American Civil Information and Education Section (CI&E) at General Headquarters, has commented that the first mission of Japan's pre-war education was to guarantee the people's absolute obedience to the dictatorship.（＊69）
 The school system itself had been appropriated as a training ground for the war regime.The basis for this had been the school system of 1919, but (as we have seen) other categories of schools had been institutionalized, and the entire system formed a complicated dual network, which included the Youth Normal School（＊70） as well as a Youth School（＊71） that was mostly an industry training center for ordinary people.  By late in the war, across the board, the required years of study had already been reduced, as the temporary exemption from conscription had been abolished, and the school itself had become little more than a student supply source for the war effort. In fact by the war's end, urban elementary schools had ceased functioning altogether, as the students were routinely evacuated to the countryside.
 But just as the modernization of Japan was remarkable, so has been its recovery.  Within two decades after the war, the Japanese rate of economic growth had returned to dramatic levels, and of course today, the economic challenges of the 1990s notwithstanding, Japan has evolved into the world's second-largest economy.
This section presents an overview of the institutional history of education after the war, from the American occupation to the present. More specifically, the history of education can be divided into two parts: the occupation period (1945-1952), and the period since 1952.
 

2.The U.S. Occupation

2-1. The Policy by General Headquarters and The United States Educational Mission to Japan
 The second reform of education was driven by the American occupation. By the War's end, General Headquarters (GHQ) had already begun considering the important function of the educational system and recognized the need to reform it. GHQ set up the Civil Information and Education Section (CI&E) to do so.
 The first operation on the part of CI&E was to overturn the nationalistic policy that had been directing the educational system. Following the purge of war criminal teachers and the elimination of teaching materials related to Shintoh, the national religion, the GHQ prohibited immediately the study of morals and ethics, which had too deeply nationalistic implications for students.
 In 1946, the United States Educational Mission to Japan (USEMJ) arrived in Japan and submitted  an  advisory to General Douglas MacAuthur, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP). After that, educational policy proceeded along the lines this group outlined. The advisory enunciated the goal of education that emphasized "recognition of individual value and dignity" and offering  "opportunity that meets one's ability and aptitude."  Based upon these principles, the advisory recommended a 6-3-3-4 system（＊72）, no tuition, coeducation and expansion of compulsory education, prefectural boards of education by referendum, four-year normal colleges and equal opportunity for higher education.  However, the system that resulted was not simply a foreign imposition. Nanbara Shigeru, the rector of the Tokyo Imperial University, had already given the basic plan as a confidential document, as demonstrated in a report by Japan's Educators Association to the USEMJ and the Ministry of Education.（＊73） Clearly, the postwar educational reform was prepared with input from the Japanese themselves.
 

2-2 Proclamation of the Japanese Constitution
 The new Japanese Constitution was proclaimed in November, 1946 and is based upon the ideals of democracy and pacifism.  Focusing upon articles that relate to education, we find mention of "freedom of thought and conscience (article 19)", "freedom of religion (article 20)", "freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press, and all other forms of expression (article 21)" and  "academic freedom (article 23)."  One of the differences from the previous Imperial Constitution was the mandate for equal, universal co-education at the ordinary school level. From the Western point of view, the peculiarity here is that there was not yet  any regulation supporting  "the freedom to teach."（＊74）
 

2-3 Fundamental Law of Education and School Education Law
Japan's Educators Association was reformed, expanded, and renamed the Educational Reform Committee. Under the advisory by the USEMJ, the new committee was set up as an advisory organ of the Prime Ministry in 1946. This committee created the basic plan of the Fundamental Law of Education, the School Education Law, The Private School Law, and the Educational Administration.
 By the previous Imperial Constitution, education was placed under the sovereign authority of the Emperor, so that everything was stipulated by Imperial edict. The new Constitution stipulated certain principles in the Fundamental Law of Education, which have since served as a kind of educational charter.  The Fundamental Law of Education made it clear that the philosophy and purpose of education was to realize the ideals of the new Constitution.
 At the same time, the School Educational Law was promulgated and educational reform was concretely instituted. Contrary to the old law, where each school was stipulated independently by Imperial edict, the new law covered schools of all kinds. Its content was specified in sections relating to General Regulations (Chapter1), Primary School (Chapter 2), Secondary School (Chapter 3), High School (Chapter4), University (Chapter 5), Education for the Handicapped (Chapter 6), Kindergarten (Chapter7), Miscellaneous Regulations(Chapter 8), Penal Provisions (Chapter 9) and Supplementary Provisions.
In the first chapter, "the schools provided for in this law" were stipulated as "primary schools, secondary schools, high schools, universities, schools for blind, schools for the deaf, schools for the handicapped and kindergartens." The pre-war Senmon Gakko was abolished with this revision, while the Miscellaneous Schools were consigned to chapter eight ("Miscellaneous Regulations"). The previous, complicated dual-school system was reformed into a single unitary system of 6-3-3-4, similar to the system found in the US. Compulsory education was expanded to nine years, which eventually would improve education generally.
 The School Education Law was enforced from April 1, 1947, and at the same time, primary schools and secondary schools resumed. High schools were started the next year, and universities in 1949. Japan, at the time, was a defeated and devastated county and, accordingly, obvious economical difficulties complicated any attempts at reform, a reality not entirely appreciated by the CI&E, which nonetheless insisted on proceeding with an ambitious reform plan.
 

2-4  Grades K to 12
 Kindergarten was also mandated in chapter one of the School Educational Law. Primary schools  aimed "at giving children elementary general education according to the development of their minds and bodies."   The elementary program was to cover six years, with a curriculum modeled after that in the U.S., with none of the pre-war division between elite and mass education.
 Schools for the blind, deaf and otherwise handicapped had not been compulsory up to this point, but they were made so now.  And special classes were set up in primary school, secondary school and high school, so these special cases could be better accommodated.
 

2-5 High Schools
 The previous system provided five years for secondary school, two years for women's secondary and five years for industry school, but the new regulation expanded each of the old requirements with extended time for high school. The school district system was to be implemented as well.  Democratization and the stipulation of equal opportunity contributed to the new mandate's popular acceptance, as did course offerings, which included agriculture, technology, business and homemaking. Correspondence courses were stipulated as well. Evening sessions for high school were mandated by revision in 1950.
 

2-6 University: Old-system vs. New-system
 The CE&I advised that higher education should be: (1) opened to the public, (2) focused upon general education and, (3) consolidated from the eight categories of previously segregated higher educational institutes -- university, Senmon Gakko, old-system high school, higher normal school, women's higher normal school, women's normal school, normal school, youth normal school.  The result was to be one university system.  According to the School Educational Law, "The University, as the center of learning, is aimed at teaching and studying higher learning and technical arts as well as giving broad general culture and developing intellectual, moral and practical abilities."  The American influence is apparent here, in the importance attached to the pragmatic combination of "teaching and studying" and "technical arts."  Graduate school was also mandated.
 In July, 1947, The University Accreditation Association was organized. Its members were 46 universities that had been in existence for more than five years.  This was a private organization, independent from the government.  In December of the same year, the government launched the University Establishment Committee under the School Educational Law, Article 60. This was an advisory organ supervised by the Ministry of Education for the chartering of the university and other things related to degree conferral.  In this way, an American kind of oversight system was established. However, neither the old-system Imperial universities nor some of the other old-system universities were generally cooperative.（＊75）Moreover, from the beginning, the University Accreditation Association exempted both the national universities (Tokyo and Kyoto) and some of the private ones (Waseda and Keio) from the review process, so in effect the accreditation was only for the new-system universities.（＊76）   Here was a remnant of the old-system hierarchy.
 Thus, many new-system universities were born in 1949. The eight basic types of higher educational institutes were reformed and put together under only one legal category, like that in the U.S..（＊77）  Most were private schools.  At the same time, within the pre-war Senmon Gakko or "Miscellaneous Schools," some schools that could not meet the university regulation were instituted by a provisional measure as Junior Colleges (Tandai) with courses of two to three years. This change was completed in 1948 and  screened by the University Existing Committee.
 However, in fact, many Senmon Gakko had been established to meet the war situation. Most of these were medical, pharmacology and technology schools, among which were many women's medical schools and technology schools previously installed in factories. The number of Senmon Gakko doubled, from 183 schools in 1935 to 368 schools in 1947.（＊78）  Of the 183 new schools, 80% were established in the six years from 1941 to 1947, which is to say, during the chaos created by the war.　Therefore, this transformation under the one category of university was even more substantial than what had occurred under the University Ordinance in 1918. However, the regulations for the university at this time were inadequate and even less reliable than the pre-war regulation of the Senmon Gakko.（＊79） Thus, even though legally qualifying as universities, some institutions were hardly more than Senmon Gakko. Here, once again, a notion of "university in legal status only" made its appearance.（＊80）  These new-system universities were called in general Shinsei (which means new-system and has connotations similar to the name of a cheap cigarette).
But these new-system universities, especially their faculty, certainly did not see themselves that way.  These new-system universities required many new faculty,  so many were appointed from the graduates of the old-system universities who could not remain at the former Imperial universities. Even by 1962,  a full 38% of the faculty in all universities in Japan were graduates from Tokyo and Kyoto Universities.（＊81） Thus the new-system universities were virtually colonized by the old Imperial Universities.（＊82） This had major effects.  For in almost all majors, scholars keep up relations with former teachers, so the hierarchy of authority in majors remained virtually unaltered within the university system, which meant that the academic hierarchy, with Tokyo University at the summit, became even more ensconced.  In terms of the curriculum, this meant that the emphasis on pure research, as opposed to practical training for the masses of ordinary citizens, was enhanced rather dramatically.  This remained so, despite the obvious fact that almost all of the graduates would need practical jobs after their studies were over.
 

2-7 The Miscellaneous Schools
 The schools mandated in Chapter 1 of the School Educational Law naturally received most of the attention at the time; however, schools other than these had to be covered, and this was accomplished in the "Miscellaneous Schools" section of the document (Chapter 8).  According to the statistics by the Ministry of Education, this category included various kind of schools that provided education in sewing, accounting, the abacus, cooking, nutrition, nursing, hair cutting, typewriting, English language, radiotelegraphy, car mechanics, and so on. Obviously, most were very practical or vocationally directed, and concerned subject matter that the new-system university did not teach.
 So at this point, given the fact that some of the pre-war mandated Senmon Gakko and some  "miscellaneous schools" had been upgraded to the new-system university or junior college, the legal definition of the Senmon Gakko was deemed no longer necessary, and was eliminated.  It remained in common usage among the general population, however: the habit of calling non-university higher education Senmon Gakko  was so entrenched that people commonly persisted in applying the old term to the new-system "miscellaneous schools," and some even supposed that the new-system university and junior college mandate constituted an upgrade of Senmon Gakko.
 One interesting source concerning the background for the Miscellaneous School mandate is the Research Section in the Research Department of the Ministry of Education, which stated in September, 1953 that:
…the educational system of the Miscellaneous School has both passive and positive meanings. The passive is an expedient, in other words, a subsidy measure to approve the growing and developing schools that aim to conform to the formal school regulation; the positive is the tolerance that allows the establishment of the extraordinary or new line school to meet the changing demand of the current era….It should be noted that there is no way to recognize such transitional status in the [otherwise] rigid regulations for formal schools (article 1 schools) other than the uses of this institutionalizing… Future societal changes will demand new line schools and, as the history of education has shown, it is apparent that the concept of "school" will be gradually changing. Therefore, this Miscellaneous School designation allows for the continued flexibility and excellence of the educational system（＊83）  (italics in the original).
 

2-8 Private Schools
 The School Educational Law made it clear that the schools were to serve the public good and stipulated that only state, prefectural and local public entities, or bona fide non-profit groups, could establish schools. In 1949, however, the Private School Law was promulgated, and it reduced the supervising power of the Ministry of Education by requiring the Ministry and local government to respect the private school's independence.  It also clarified the school's relation to Article 89 of the Constitution,（＊84） by providing some governmental supervisory protections against corruption in the distribution of a disbanded school's assets, which would now be reserved for the use of the school's graduates. So private schools were after all subjected to some limited governmental control. This indicates how blurred the distinction between public and private was becoming.
 In 1952, the Private School Promotion Association was organized, and fund-raising efforts were begun.  However, private schools came into financial difficulties year by year, caused especially by inflation. In 1970, the Japan Private University Promotion Law was enacted to support the ordinary expenditures of private universities. The law instituted a non-profit organization, Japan Private University Promotion Association, to subsidize private universities.
In 1953, the propotion of students who belonged to a private university was 57.5% for universities and 82.5% for junior colleges. These figures increased to 75.5% and 90.1%, respectively, in 1970.（＊85）   In terms of the sheer numbers of enrollees, the private sector has always held the advantage, and it is certainly fair to say that the promise of universal education was furthered most substantially by the private sector.
 
 

2-9 Other Institutionalizing
2-9-1 Teacher's College(Normal School)
 During the pre-war regime, Normal School students studied at the government's expense, and the graduates were assigned to designated schools by the government.  The CE&I recommended that (1) the new teacher's college system provide professional education to teachers; (2) teacher training be required,  including general study and pedagogy; and (3) any teacher's college offer a four-year course of study. Based upon this recommendation, teacher training was held in new-system liberal arts colleges.  And teachers of elementary and secondary schools were appointed from the graduates of these liberal arts colleges or from other universities having teacher training courses. In 1949, all of the national universities in each prefecture installed teacher training courses.
 

2-9-2 Educational Public Service Personnel
 The legal status of teachers was stipulated by the Law for Special Regulations Concerning Educational Public Service Personnel in 1949. This law clarified the teacher's unique job status in terms of its responsibility to serve the public through education. "Educational public service personnel" included the rectors, principals, teachers and other officials of national and public schools, as well as the president of the Board of Education and teaching assistants. These professions required some courses in educational research and training.
 In formation concurrently with these legal events, the Japan Teachers Union was organized just after the war, in 1947. The union proclaimed, at their national conference in 1952, a proletariat ethic rather than any sacred calling. The most vehement opposition to militarism had become closely associated with the leftist influence deriving from the socialist countries on the Asian mainland.
 

2-9-3 The Board of  Education
 The CE&I had recommendations relating to a board of education as well. In 1948, the Law of the Board of Education was mandated.  A collegiate administrative organization of the local government was to appoint seven committee members from each prefecture and five from each town and village.  Of the members of the committee itself,  one was chosen from the local parliament,  and the others were chosen by  election by local residents.

2-9-4 The Reform of the Ministry of Education
 The severe criticism that arose against the Ministry of Education for its role in the war regime almost led to its abolition.  In 1948, however, the National Administration Law was revised and the function of the Ministry of Education was reformed from one of command and supervision to one of advising. Its powers and authority were diminished substantially.  To this point, the Ministry of Education had had huge power to institutionalize schools, and in all matters relating to formalities, procedures, supervision, inspection and so on. This reform transformed all there responsibilities into routine administrative office work, and the authority of university supervision was abolished altogether.（＊86）

2-9-5 The Change of Policy in Education
 Educational policy could hardly ignore the developments surrounding the Cold War.  From around 1949, the US policy in Japan was increasingly conservative, as the US came to regard the containment of communism as the dominant consideration, influencing even its attitude toward the rise of the labor union movement. On the other hand, as the occupation was relaxed, the powers of Japan's own government began to expand. Then, the Korean War began in 1950.  All this underlay the Second United States Educational Mission to Japan, whose set of recommendations reflected this change of policy.
 Based upon this advisory, the Prime Minister set up a private advisory organ, The Committee of Government Decree Reform, which debated economics, the labor problem, the police system, administration and education; and finally submitted an advisory report for yet another educational reform. This report said, in effect, that the educational system reform after the war contributed to establishing a democratic educational system, but was, however, modeled after other countries whose circumstances were different. Accordingly, this model suffered from idealistic limitations and lacked sufficient realism for implementation in Japan. The educational system, the report concluded, should be revised rationally.  This led to the following recommendations: to institute several courses in secondary education, to abolish the school district system for the high school, and to institute an appointment system for the Board of Education.  In addition, the report recommended the establishment of "five-year special professional colleges (Koto Senmon Gakko)" as a kind of middle category between secondary school and university, different from general high school and from two-year colleges.
 
 

2-9-6 The Central Council for Education
 In November, 1951, the Educational Reform Committee (previous the Japan Educators Association) was absorbed  into the government and renamed The Central Council for Education that was mandated as an advisory organ to the Minister of Education.
 

3. Independence Again
3-1 Political Neutrality of Education
 Amid a tense international situation, Japan and the Allied Powers concluded a peace treaty that restored Japan's independence. The condition of the country, however, remained unstable in the face of numerous political movements that arose just after the war.  These included general opposition to the U.S. occupation, as well as growing communist and socialist movements. Members of the teachers' union were among those actively agitating in favor of a leftist agenda.
Accordingly, a law for Temporary Measures for the Political Neutrality of Compulsory School Education was promulgated, and the Special Regulations Concerning Educational Public Service Personnel  was revised to advance this political neutrality. The former was designed to keep teachers from propagandizing in the classroom. The later was to apply the more strict regulations that governed National Service Personnel to Educational Public Service Personnel.  As a result, politically biased educational tendencies in the public schools were alleviated somewhat.  Both laws were passed as drafted in the Diet, amid much violent political protesting.
 

3-2, Revision of the Board of Education System
 In light of these social circumstances, the Board of Education system was revised. Although this  educational board system had been originally set up for decentralization of power and education, in reality it was being exploited by the communist and socialist opposition. Committee election was abolished, and the members were to be appointed by the local governor. The appointment of the superintendent of education in each prefecture was to be approved by the Minister of Education, and the superintendent of education in each town and village was to be approved by the Board of Education in the local government. In addition, the Minister of Education was empowered to handle the situation if the educational measures were deemed illegal or inappropriate.
Under the U.S. occupation, the central government and the local government functioned more or less as reciprocal counterweights, the former curbing the latter's limited autonomy.（＊87）  However, by the mid-1950s they came to be better synchronized in their administrative functions as the central government began to reassert its supervisory authority.
 

3-3, Reform of the Ministry of Education
 The Ministry of Education was gradually recovering much of its former power. The Compulsory Education Department was established to control the schools in 1952, and the ministry was granted the authority to approve textbooks in 1953, assuming control over the appointment system for the Board of Education. Politically, the ministry was promoting an image of character and leadership, strengthening its control of the course of study, textbook selection, and other aspects of school administration in the 1950s and  60s (including previously ignored aspects of the collateral system).
 

4. Economic Growth and Development of Schools

4-1 High School
 In the late 1950s, because of technological innovation and economic growth, the economic advantages of compulsory education were becoming apparent. High school attendance increased dramatically in the early 1960s, and the percentage of students going on to high schools reached over 90% in 1974.
 

4-2 Colleges of Technology
 Based upon the plan of the higher professional college (Part 3, 2-9-5), five-year colleges were instituted. This was largely a response to strong demands from economic organizations such as the Japan Federation of Employer's Associations (JFEA), which raised worries about the lack of middle-class technicians.（＊88）
 According to a JFEA report, prior to the war, elementary technicians were supplied from industry schools, middle-level technicians were supplied from the industry Senmon Gakkos, higher-level  technicians and technologists were supplied from universities. However, after the war, these industry Senmon Gakko had been upgraded to universities, so that graduates from technical high schools were hired as future elementary technicians, and graduates from university were targeted as future higher technicians.  The middle was vacant. To solve this, the plan was to establish "a five-year education program composed of three years of high school level and two years of college" to teach "professional and vocational skill".（＊89）
 In 1961, the School Educational Law was revised and the College of Technology (also termed "Higher Profession School") was instituted.  It aimed at "thorough instruction in professional arts and science, and nurturing the abilities for the profession".（＊90） This was designed as a five-year course for junior high school graduates so that the unified 6-3-3-4 system was truncated yet again. This resulted in 55 national schools, four public schools and three private schools. However, this plan enjoyed only limited success, in part because it unrealistic to expect students to decide on a profession by the end of junior high school.
 Here some explanation is needed. The Japanese name for this school is Koto Senmon Gakko,  which literally means "Higher Senmon Gakko." As the name indicates, it implied the revival of the pre-war Senmon Gakko and in fact, it had been once called "newer Senmon Gakko" in the Diet.（＊91）  However, the popular nickname for it was Ko-Sen, to distinguish from Miscellaneous Schools that had been generally called Senmon Gakko.
 

4-3 Junior College
 As mentioned above, some schools that could not meet the new-system university regulation had been instituted by a provisional measure, as Junior Colleges (Tandai) with courses lasting two or three years. In 1964, this became an official, permanent mandate. Enrollment in two-year junior college increased significantly, but there was a popular prejudice that these were just finishing schools for girls.
 

4-4 University
 University accreditation had been regulated by the University Accreditation Association (UAA); in 1956, however, the "Standards for the Establishment of a University" superceded the UAA in favor of the prerogatives of the Ministry of Education. This was intended to strengthen accreditation standards, and the Ministry itself seemed to be in the best position to accomplish this.（＊92）
 The Standards for the Establishment of a University addressed matters relating to department organization, the lectureship-based credit system (European Chair System), department-based credit system (American Department System), teachers organizations, course content, building and properties, facilities and so on. It stipulated that whereas the old-system national university took as its model lectureship-based credit system, the new-system university (usually private) was to be organized around the department-based credit system.
 New-system graduate schools were instituted in four private universities, such as Waseda University, in 1950, and later they were instituted in new-system national and public universities as well. The graduate school consisted of two-year master programs and five-year doctoral programs (which could include the masters course sequence).  This was a significant change from the old days when only the Imperial universities were able to offer the doctoral degree.
 After that, with economic growth, university and junior college enrollment increased by leaps and bounds in the 1960s.According to the criterion established by Martin Trow, the shift from elite to mass-access education occurred in 1966 when the enrollment reached 16.3%.（＊93）  In 1976, it reached 39.2%.
 Economics governed the conditions that made it possible for ordinary students who had passed  secondary and high school to join the rush into the university. To meet this demand, of course, many new-system universities were speedily established. However, all this had not been accomplished through design on the government's part; it occurred as a result of the looser regulations of the new system, "by non-control and non-support."  The government left the education market to take care of itself, in the free-wheeling jumble of established private universities and the burgeoning innovations of the private sector. Happily, this seemed to work. During the 1960s, many universities were established with virtually  no detailed long-range plan, which exploded the number of financially struggling universities, but also took advantage of the competition engendered by the popular preoccupation with personal advancement through education.（＊94）
 By the era of the great oil shock, in 1973, the universities had increased but so had the accompanying problems, including vitriolic campus disputes begun in the late 1960s, the appearance of the mega-versity, the urban concentration of private universities, overloaded student population, and the impaired educational quality offered in may of the private universities.
To solve these difficulties, after 1976 the government adopted the policy, as a temporary measure,  of curbing the proliferation of new universities.（＊95）
 

4-5 Rebirth of the Senmon Gakko
 During the 1960's, the universities had been devastated. The shift to mass access diminished the average quality of university student, and job placement was no longer a sure bet for university graduates. On the other hand, the number of applicants was still increasing, and in turn the number of failed applicants was growing as well. This new situation required a new market solution in the form of practically oriented schools where graduates could get the job training the times demanded. This was traditionally the purview of the "miscellaneous schools."
 Accordingly, yet another set of new regulations was advanced. In 1975, in accordance with the policy of curbing the growth in the number of new universities, the School Educational Law was revised to mandate the Special Course School, Sensyu-Gakko, through Article 82-2.  The "miscellaneous school"  system was left intact.
Sensyu means almost the same as Senmon (specialty). It was defined as "these educational institutions other than those mentioned in Article 1 which effect systematic education…with the purpose of improving the abilities necessary for occupation or practical life, or elevating culture".（＊96）  The article stipulated three types of courses for the Sensyu-Gakko: (1) senior high school courses (Koutou Katei) designed for junior high school graduates; (2) specialized courses for senior high school graduates; and (3) general courses for all types of students.
 In particular, this time the schools that provided specialized courses for senior high school graduates were legally allowed to be named Senmon Gakko.. At the same time, all other schools were prohibited from using the name. This was the rebirth of the legal definition of the Senmon Gakko, which had not existed in law since the post-war educational reform.
 Compared to Article 1 schools, this regulation allowed for considerable freedom for Senmon Gakko. Despite the fact that the regulation for establishing universities in Japan is generally stricter than that in the US,（＊97） this Senmon Gakko regulation is less onerous than the common US university regulation.  So, if we apply US terminology to the Japanese situation, we can say that the line dividing university from non-university passes directly through the Senmon Gakko.（＊98）
 

5. Socio-cultural Background

 There were several important social and cultural background elements related to educational institutionalizing after the war.  These were: (1) campus unrest, (2) the university hierarchy re-enforced by the Test-Coaching School movement, and (3) the "Leisure Land" Universities.
 

5-1. Campus Unrest
 The political movement against the rise in tuition in the national universities, which arose in 1955, helped create an atmosphere of campus unrest throughout the university system. By the 1960s, the political movement against the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States was spreading throughout the country. With the shift toward mass access, violent disruptions on campuses across the country, and even in many high schools, reached seismic proportions.  The university was devastated.
 To solve these problems, The Temporary Law for the Measure of University Management was adopted. This enabled unilateral measures to be taken by school administrators, including the suspension of university operations, and in 1969 this resulted in the suspension of the entrance exam to Tokyo University, which by then had become a virtual battleground.  This of course severely compromised educational autonomy.
 All this occurred within a context of world-wide social and political agitation, but some of the conditions were internal, including the level of anxiety and frustration generated by the daunting entrance exam itself, which was certainly intended to preserve the elitist nature of the education at Tokyo University.  And it was all too clear that even successful candidates could not be guaranteed a job after graduation.

5-2. The University Hierarchy and the Test-Coaching School (Yobiko)
Japan's obsession with educational status was made evident by one more development in the private sector. In the late 1950s, some companies began to rank universities based upon a statistical analysis of the scores from the entrance exams of the accepted candidates. This was followed by a proliferation of test-coaching schools (Yobiko) that were intended to prepare applicants to succeed at the entrance exam.  Socially, the effect of this was to shift the expectations of applicants onto the results of the test itself and away from performance in course work thereafter.
 

5-3. "Leisure Land" University
 The economic growth in the 1980's made Japan the world's number two economic power.  But the atmosphere among university campuses, even after the fading of campus unrest, did not reflect any real preparedness for the challenges of the new economic era.  Private universities had largely remained scenes of mass-production, with overblown class size and irrelevant or uninspiring lecture formats.  In the meantime, as families had become more financially stable, student life had increasingly become less seriously directed toward the real purposes of education, and urban universities in effect became home bases for student amusement, a kind of "leisure land." (The enrollment among schools in the countryside decreased accordingly.)  Christian universities in urban areas even attracted numbers of non-Christian students due to their Western orientation.
 

6. Post-war Senmon Gakko and Computer Education

 The advent of the Information Age would bring new demands and opportunities for social change, and the rise of the computer as a mass tool for information retrieval and communication gave a new mission to the Senmon Gakko,  to "miscellaneous schools" and to other private institutes, a mission virtually ignored by universities.
 The first computer education had actually begun at the graduate schools of Tokyo and Kyoto Universities in 1961. In the private sector, the first course was an evening study session held by young scholars at Kyoto University in 1963 at a nearby small home school.  In those days, the computer was an expensive instrument for high-level research, available only at top-ranked universities and comprehended only by advanced scholars. The group, named the Kyoto Software Study Meeting, enrolled not only university scholars but also businessmen from big companies. Year by year, participants increased, and high school graduates also attended.
In 1969, they transformed the home school into a full-time schooling system,  renamed Kyoto Computer Gakuin (KCG), and started to officially enroll high school graduates. The founder's philosophy was derived from the tradition of the "Liberal Faction," which was to "foster creative technical experts that carry the load of the next era on their shoulders." And he severely criticized those universities that never provided pragmatically oriented education. （＊99）
 The applicants to KCG increased dramatically, and schools in Tokyo made it their model. These were mostly the "miscellaneous schools" -- radio-transmitting schools, sewing schools, and so on. According to Nagai's classification, they constituted the "Adaptation Faction."  As a result, because these vocational schools were in the forefront in applying the KCG model, and despite the fact that computer education includes everything from basic skills to advanced scientific technology, a serious misunderstanding arose within the society at large, which supposed that computer education was just some sort of vocational training.
 By the mid-1980s, only a few private universities had basic computer courses. Measures  institute computer education suffered one delay after another. There were very few teachers who could teach this in the universities, reflecting the common prejudice that vocational training was beneath the august mission of top-level academics.
 The contrast with the situation in the U.S. could hardly be more apparent. By the middle of the 1980s, even community colleges in America were upgrading their curricula by including middle-level computer education.（＊100）  The pervasive Japanese view, uniformly controlled by the Ministry of Education, was upheld in the US in only one exceptional case: one single Midwestern college rejected computer education because "it did not belong to liberal arts education, but was closely connected to vocational education."（＊101）
 However, the social changes overtaking society were superceding even the pronouncement of the Ministry of Education.  Computer-related companies themselves had little choice but to hire their programmers from schools like KCG, increasing enrollment dramatically and placing a new generation of programmers among unsung companies like the card printing firm Nintendo, where KCG graduates would soon develop the computer game.
 Eventually, popular sentiment came to realize that computer education had been egregiously delayed in the university system, and only gradually has the common view begun to overcome longstanding prejudice and adapt to the idea that these non-university institutes are actually providing computer education.
 

7. Toward the 21st Century

7-1 National Council on Educational Reform
 Over more than four decades following the War, science and technology have progressed dramatically, altering the social structure in significant ways. More than twenty years ago, in 1971, the Central Council for Education in Japan produced a plan of educational reform that focused on the development of independent and creative graduates within a life-long learning track. The proposal was largely ignored at the time.
 In 1984, however, the government set up the National Council on Educational Reform, which in 1987 submitted a report acknowledging that a mature 21st-century society must be reoriented towards information access, technology, and globalization. And they proposed much the same program as the 1971 report.  The government, on the basis of the advisory report, embraced  this new program and began to enact it.
 

7-2 The movement of reform
 In 1988, the "credit system high school" was instituted, and teachers in national schools were required to receive practical training. Teacher qualification was revised to divide the license procedure, and another, special license was established to authorize specialists who had equivalent experience in other fields.
 The course of study was revised considerably in 1987 and, from 1997, the employment of foreign teachers in English language study was promoted. In higher education, the University Council was set up in 1987 to promote the diversity of universities to meet the decreasing of the 18-and-older population. In 1991, the Standards for the Establishment of a University were simplified and each university came to be able to establish a diversified curriculum. The National Institution for Academic Degrees was established to offer degrees based upon the collected credits from different universities.
 Since then, the Ministry of Education has being carrying out various reforms addressing the needs of the information age. These include the establishing of the Broadcast University in 1981, international exchange in education and students, a measure for returning students, and Japanese language education for foreigners. Many measures are currently proceeding in order to cope properly with the diversified and enhanced learning needs of the general population.（＊102）
 

7-3 Senmon Gakko
 The Senmon Gakko has functioned as the flexible collateral track under free competition quite contrary to the main track promoted in the university. The number of schools and total enrollment were 893 schools and 131,492 students in 1975, which the next year increased to 1,942 schools and 357,249 students. By 1995, there were 3,476 schools and 813,347 students.（＊103）
 From 1996 on, these Senmon Gakko schools were permitted to offer a specialist's degree, which was more or less equivalent to the associate's degree in the US. In addition, from 1998 on, the graduates from these Senmon Gakko schools can transfer to the university. By this measure, the Senmon Gakko were finally accorded a status equivalent to non-university higher education, through OECD classification.（＊104）
 The most important point in the educational system reform now in Japan is this complex, flexible dual system, where students can go from a unified system of elementary and secondary school, to any university, junior college, college of technology or Senmon Gakko, and then transfer to the target university -- in what amounts finally to a unitary system. This finally bypasses the onerous entrance examination procedure.
***
 The percentage of enrollments in higher education, from the three-year secondary school ( a combined total of the university, junior college, college of technology and  Senmon Gakko) was 51.7% in 1985 and reached 66.2% in 1996. The combined proportion of university, junior college and college of technology was 46.86% in 1996. The percentage of students who applied to university or junior college among all high school graduates was 54%. The shift has been accomplished, from mass to universal higher education (as measured according to the classification advance by Martin Trow.（＊105）).
 

8. Summary
 As a result of the Meiji revolution, when the social class structure was redefined, and after the educational system was established in 1872, every student was able to advance his or her social standing, just as long as that person had enough skill to pass the exam. People began to aim their sights toward the apex of academic achievement, which would guarantee membership in the elite bureaucracy. Attainment of the bachelor's degree became a widespread social goal.（＊106） But at that point there was only one university.  Thereafter the government approved 46 more universities which were "upgraded" from Senmon Gakko, but these universities had only one model, owing to government regulation and the practical realities that obtained with the university monopoly. Then, as other universities followed the lead of the Imperial University, their own standing was advanced to the point where their reputation could compete in the popular mind with that of Tokyo University itself.
After the war, many new-system universities were instituted, as Senmon Gakko were gradually transformed, and these came to be fixed in reputation as an elite group of institutions.（＊107） Despite this, even as the educational system was simplified from the existing complexities of the dual system, behind-the-scenes rivalries and institutional inertia kept much of the pre-war system virtually intact. In Japan, it seems that the lifting of class regimentation had not meant the birth of diverse values, but rather the chance to be "upgraded." The pyramid, a sharply tapered hierarchy, had been maintained by existing popular conceptions.
Although elsewhere it may be said that the educational system is an instrument for social reform, at least of Japan it might be said that the educational system is a sort of instrument to classify people.  Although the US Educational Mission for Japan recommended a democratic system of education, this transformation could be effected only in a gradual utilization of existing realities. Democratic arrangements do not adapt to such a hierarchical way of thinking. Insofar as uncritical regard for authority is pervasive, in tandem with powerful governmental control, it is difficult to reform the society simply by such a reform instrument.
The reason Japan's higher education so rapidly advanced after the war is the economic growth that enabled many people to pursue higher education. The leaders who were largely responsible for laying the groundwork for that growth were educated people from the prewar era, so the evidence actually calls somewhat into question the notion that post-war educational reform itself had much effect. Computer education and the accompanying social transformation into an information-intensive society were actually accomplished by the non-controlled schools, Senmon Gakko, at the very point where universities had been devastated by the disruptions induced by bureaucratic intransigence and campus unrest.
Although the GHQ had actually mandated democratic reform in education, the orderly hierarchical attitudes already established prevented realization of that top-down reform program. The American educational ideal was more adequately embodied by the freely competing, loosely regulated Senmon Gakko. This, then, was the by-product of exclusion from the approved governmental route, so that sweet indeed were the uses of adversity.
This compels us to conclude that, just as long as the new-system universities follow the model of the old and well-established elite institutions, they cannot meet the demands of mass education.  In such a situation, the institutional future for the Senmon Gakko is bright indeed.
 

III  Conclusion
Problem analysis:
The Current University and Senmon Gakko
 
 

Problem analysis:The Current University and Senmon Gakko

1. Introduction

This Part presents the structural problem of Japan's current higher education system.（＊108） After its peak in 1991, the population of young people began rapidly decreasing. Twenty years from now, it will decrease by two-thirds. This has started to cause many problems. Although many people discuss it as a problem for the university alone, this is actually deeply rooted in the whole higher education system, which includes more than just the university.  We need to consider then the Senmon Gakko, which exists alongside the university and which carries its own history.
 As we observed earlier, the concept of Senmon Gakko, peculiar to Japan, was born when Japan was rapidly being modernized. After the World War Two, the Senmon Gakko was eliminated for a time, but was re-instituted in 1976.
 Now the formal regulations governing the establishment of the Japanese university are very strict. In general, where regulations are so strict and rigid, we should not be surprised to find another institution developing on a parallel basis, to absorb those who cannot fit into the main track system.  The pre-war Senmon Gakko actually became basis of the university in its present form. And the post-war Senmon Gakko has functioned well in the specialized fields, such as computer education.
 For the greater part of this past century, the number of applicants for university has always been higher than the existing capacity of the university. After the War, despite the growing emphasis on establishing mass-access schools, this has remained generally true.  Partly as a result of this, the Senmon Gakko have done rather well in terms of enrollment, benefiting from the overflow in the student pool.  Yet this benefit was derived in the midst of an odd and inefficient institutional context, in which school reform was being imperfectly realized and in which ultimately harmful hierarchical designations still functioned at both the institutional and popular levels.  The established universities were not living up to their reputation and were not offering the kind of education that new social realities demanded.
 

2. The Birth of the New-System University: Mass-Access the Japanese Way

 During its isolationist era, Japan was a strictly formed hierarchical society that had changed little in two centuries. This of course had a lasting effect upon the social changes that occurred with the Meiji revolution.  After the modernization began in 1868, the formal class system was eliminated in most areas of society, but a hierarchical system was retained in academic life.  Though anyone who can demonstrate sufficient academic achievement was able to enroll in the top schools, the relative standing of the various schools themselves continues to reflect the old Imperial hierarchy.  Tokyo University has retained its reputation as the nation's foremost center of learning, not unlike its former standing as the bureaucratic training center for the warrior aristocracy.  At the other end of the spectrum were the specialty schools, the Senmon Gakko.
 But this rather straightforward arrangement began to change, as the very notion of 'university' became expanded for a time to include Senmon Gakko, and as the masses set their sights on the academic attainments that had been formerly reserved for the elite.  This brought about a proliferation of middle-range universities, which naturally failed to achieve overnight the renown that the Imperial schools had already acquired.  Thus the democratizing aim of the post-war reform was severely impaired, and this had an impact on the quality of education being provided, as old attitudes toward universities as elite centers of research continued to dominate. As a result of all this, the importance of practical career training was virtually ignored, even as economic growth increased the demand for it.
 
 

3. Internal Problems of Japanese Higher Education
3-1. Institutional Structure

 The University Ordinance of 1918 brought the opportunity for private schools to upgrade their status, but only the Imperial universities were allowed to install graduate programs.  After the war, these educational institutes -- the Senmon Gakko, Medical Senmon Gakko, and Normal School -- were categorized as 'new-system'  universities, after the American model, and these became the mass-access universities of today, as a kind of weakened clone of the Imperial schools.  The main institutional difference had to do with departmental organization, whereby the lecture-ship based credit system (the European Chair System) that governed the Imperial classroom was rejected, in favor of the department-based credit system (the American Department System).
 In the early days just after the war, the political power of the Ministry of Education was weakened by GHQ.  However, the changing Cold War political situation created a increased sense of urgency on the part of the American planners, and from this standpoint it appeared at the time that the more loosely managed system that was then evolving would be vulnerable to social unrest.  As a result, the Ministry of Education regained much of its centralized authority, and the independence of the 'new-system'  universities diminished as a result.  This was not entirely detrimental: in 1949, the Private School Law made public funds available to private universities.  But this also meant intrusive oversight by the Ministry, and the opportunities to innovate were severely curtailed, along with the benefits of genuine competition.
 The other major development at this time concerned legal nomenclature, and the eventual consequences of this were substantial, as we shall see here.  As a result of the post-war reform, the pre-war Senmon Gakko and other miscellaneous schools that could not meet the new-system regulations were reconstituted as junior colleges.  This shows the limitations of centralized oversight: governmental bureaucrats needed an easy way of measuring educational quality that would indicate whether or not an institution should be awarded the status of 'university.'  Of course, there is no such easy measuring device.  From the bureaucratic standpoint, the most convenient means of classification turns out to be simply the physical assets of the institution. So it was that certain Senmon Gakko with a certain minimum land-holding became mass-access universities, while others were consigned to the lesser status of 'junior college.'  But the actual quality of education did not substantially vary between these two kinds of schools, so the  prohibition on transfer between them was irrational.
 But the consequence of these artificial distinctions was more complicated even than this: for what this actually did was re-enforce a detrimental prejudice against quality education for the masses. By the mid-1970s, it encouraged a misconception on the part of administrators, faculty, and student applicants, whereby the institutional successors of the more established Senmon Gakko (the mass-access universities) were thought to have an educational role essentially different from newly-established Senmon Gakko -- a role as sacrosanct research institutions.  But in fact the actual quality of education in these mass-access schools did not match their reputation.  It certainly did not warrant either the common prejudicial comparisons with the specialty schools, or their adamant refusal to adopt practical training programs that would actually benefit the masses they had enrolled.
 

3-2. Faculty

The new regulation of 1949 required the new-system universities to hire enough full-time faculty who have formal academic credentials, and the only source for that were the old-system universities.（＊109）
 The graduates from the old-system university who could not win a permanent position in their alma mater got a job in the new-system universities. And since the mandated retirement age for private university faculty was ten years longer than the national university standard, retired professors from the national university could be hired by private school. This became very common. These private universities of course welcomed men of such great renown, who would spread the academic climate of the old-system university.  This meant that despite the original intentions of the post-war reform, the pyramidal educational system was essentially preserved.
 Needless to say, young people with the highest academic skill attended the old-system universities. So whatever research actually went on in the new-system university, it could hardly match the quality of the Imperial students.  Yet the old-style educational format passed essentially unchanged from the Imperial universities, despite the fact that the new-system student body were in need of the kind of personal mentoring that highly accomplished students do not normally require.  This result, needless to say, was not favorable to the overall quality of the education provided.
 

3-3. The Institutional Politics of Education

 After the war, the political power of the Ministry of Education was weakened by GHQ. Then, in July 1947, the University Accreditation Association was organized. Its members were 46 universities that had been in existence for more than five years. Of course, these were old-system universities. This was a private organization, independent from the government. Then, in December of the same year, the government launched the University Establishment Committee under the School Educational Law. This was an advisory organ supervised by the Ministry of Education for the chartering of the university and other things related to degree conferral.  In this way, an American kind of oversight system was established. However, neither the old-system Imperial universities nor some of the other old-system universities were generally cooperative.（＊110）Moreover, from the beginning, the University Accreditation Association exempted both the national universities (Tokyo and Kyoto) and some of the private ones (Waseda and Keio) from the review process, so in effect the accreditation was only for the new-system universities.（＊111）   Here was a remnant of the old-system hierarchy. This was brought about by a number of factors.
 For one thing, even though the GHQ had first assumed that Japan's imperialism must have been orchestrated by the Imperial universities, before too long the Americans halted tight control of the Imperial universities because it became apparent that this view was far too simplistic.  In fact, there was considerable support for the American reform effort within the old universities. Immediately after the War, Nanbara Shigeru, the rector of the Tokyo Imperial University, had authored the basic plan for institutional reform (as demonstrated in a report by Japan's Educators Association to the USEMJ and the Ministry of Education).（＊112） Clearly, these Imperial University people were nestling rather close to the U.S. authorities.
But as it turned out, the academic conception of democracy that had found its way into the University did not conform very well in practice with the aims of the American reformers. The rhetoric of democracy can be used as a tool for maintaining institutional power.  From the beginning of this 'reform' process, the University Accreditation Association exempted both the national universities and some of the private ones  from any formal review, so in effect the accreditation that was meant to ensure democratic reform was only applied to the new-system. It is clear that these well established authorities never understood the meaning of democratic way of higher education.  The pre-war hierarchy preciously constructed under imperialism was kept in tact.  Slogans like 'academic freedom' and 'university autonomy' were used for the purpose of maintaining the existing system within pre-existing institutions, without external interference
Even the most recent policy of the University Accreditation Association holds that "the purpose of this association is to help and foster self-evaluation" and to preserve "each university's academic autonomy and academic freedom."（＊113）  This works against any real change within the educational system. Under such circumstances, institutional autonomy simply replaces the older notion of bureaucratic control, as the more established, prestigious schools in effect assume the functions that the government had previously exercised.
 
 

4 External Factors
4-1. Economic Growth

The rapid economic growth of the post-war years increased attendance throughout higher education.  This foreshadowed the shift to mass-access education, but the pervading educational philosophy has been slow to adjust to this fact. In the U.S., community colleges carry the load of mass education, and teaching ability is more important than research ability,（＊114） as the contents of the courses offered are geared to more practical concerns. On the other hand in Japan, education has more or less copied the old-system university, and the problems with this have become apparent.  Many observers have attributed these difficulties to the fact that faculty are not trained to redraw the curriculum, and there is no financial support from the government to do so.  But the underlying cause here is surely a general reticence to embrace mass-access education, as embodied in the persistently held distinction between 'university' and 'Senmon Gakko.'
 

4-2. The Test-Coaching School

 By the 1960s the growth of the economy had given birth to the so-called 'university ranking company'  (Yobiko).  Ignoring the actual quality of education being provided, these test-coaching schools publicized the rankings of universities based solely upon the percentage of student applicants accepted into the various departments of the institution. This reinforced a general impression among the college-age population that the most important consideration in school choice was the selectivity of the each department in the school.  This was based upon test scores on entrance exams, and the test-coaching companies were created to enhance the test-taking abilities of the students.
 The problem here is that students began making their choice of schools based not even upon the subjects they most wanted to study, but upon the comparative selectivity ranking.  A student might fail the entrance exam in Politics and Economics to Waseda, but pass the exam in Law at Keio (and choose to go there instead).  These various departments are ranked along a single scale, irrespective of the departmental subject, and students were feeling obliged to attend the most selective department available to them.
 This rigid social structure is reflected in the employment practices of companies. Companies prefer graduates based upon this same selectivity rating, with little attention paid to what is actually taught in the schools.（＊115）
 

5 Outcome

 Before the war, the higher education was divided into eight different categories, which were arranged not only by their academic levels but also by the intended educational purpose. Each category was also classified into three levels. For example, in the technology field, the hierarchy was directed by the technology department of the Imperial University, and its directives filtered on down through Senmon Gakko, and finally to the Industry Schools.  So the University produced the top-level management, Senmon Gakko fostered the middle class managers, and the Industry Schools fostered actual field overseer.
However, after the war, the category of university was expanded. At that point, higher education graduates from the new-system universities were lumped together. But as a result, the starting salary of these graduates often failed to exceed that of the meager high school graduate.（＊116）  On the other hand, the remaining miscellaneous schools were so very small that they could not qualify as two-year junior colleges. They offered vocational training with no real bureaucratic control, and this itself became established in the popular consciousness: vocational education was considered the special province of these miscellaneous schools. The 'university,' of course, retained its reputation as the bastion of scholarship, while the junior college became known as a women's finishing school. This produced a kind of triangulated institutional antagonism that has still not been resolved.
 As in the U.S., discussions among Japanese educators have frequently revolved around this persistent issue concerning the status of so-called 'liberal arts' education, as opposed to the more technical training that is more economically practical.  There are some very good liberal arts programs in Japan, but many and perhaps most of the schools that aspire to that, fail to deliver.  This is most apparent in the mass-access school, where these aspirations are persistently promoted by faculty whose educational philosophy is more firmly rooted in nostalgia than in the real demands of today's society.  These latter kinds of schools have notoriously devolved into the scene of  'Leisure Land' education, for which the American equivalent is 'party school.'
 
 
 

6. Post-war Senmon Gakko: The Current System

 'Leisure Land' is not cost-effective, and companies began to realize this.  As a consequence, many instituted training centers of their own in response to the new technological requirements of the 1970's and 80s.  By 1976, many of the miscellaneous schools and other non-regulated schools were flourishing for similar reasons, and computer education in particular was expanding rapidly among these schools in the same year when the Senmon Gakko was formally re-instituted.
Today, many scholars are of the opinion that Senmon Gakko are "adapted to vocational education."（＊117）  However it would certainly be better to say that the Senmon Gakko is actually a fulfillment of that aspect of the university that schools have not up to now realized adequately.  Legally speaking, it is difficult to say that the real purpose of the Senmon Gakko is restricted to vocational education: rather, there is no reason not to regard the attention to practical training in classical Deweyan terms -- as the resource for the vast possibilities of education itself.
 But the formation of the Senmon Gakko is relatively unencumbered by formal regulation, and many of these schools are motivated mainly by profit and little by educational quality.  So there is a wide range of academic level and scholastic ability among Senmon Gakko. The government can not control Senmon Gakko because they usually can not get financial support from the government.  (The government can control only the schools which they financial support.) The main consequence here is that students choose their school only by the market reputation rather than by any independent academic assessment -- a fact reflected by the discrimination generally leveled by the university community, and the frequent lack of self-esteem on the part of the students themselves who are in attendance.
 Yet this same looser regulation is also an advantage. The course contents and the department structure can be revised more easily than in the university. Universities need Ministry permission to open new courses, and it takes usually two years to get examined by the government. On the other hand, Senmon Gakko need only the local government's permission, and that usually takes only six months.
 The market itself functions as a kind of accreditation for the Senmon Gakko. Although there is the disadvantage that the enrollment is often decided by the extent of advertising, nonetheless, if student performance in their subsequent job is not satisfactory, the Senmon Gakko's reputation will suffer and enrollment will decrease.
 

7 Legal Revision in 1998

 In 1991, the standards for the establishment of university were revised and the governmental control became more lax. Later in 1995, transfers from technical college and junior college to universities were officially accepted. In 1996, many higher-level Senmon Gakko were allowed to offer an associate's degree equivalent to that offered by junior colleges and colleges of technology. Then, finally in 1998, transfer from Senmon Gakko to universities and four-year colleges are made possible. This is having a significant impact upon the higher education system.
 The Industrial Age is coming to an end, and an era of educational pluralism is at hand.  Japan can no longer afford its centrally controlled style of education, and this is finally being recognized. What is replacing strict governmental regulation is an informal system of trial and error, in which various educational strategies are being tested and offered to the consumer for evaluation.  It is clear in this context that the strategies of some universities, which simply change the names of departments to attract applicants, is bound to fail in the end, and I turn now to a discussion of this eventuality.
 

8.The Impact of Legal Revision: The Recent University Transfer Regulations

 In 1998, the school education law was revised and it became officially possible to transfer from a Senmon Gakko to a university.  This means that all higher educational institutes -- universities, two-year colleges, colleges of technology and Senmon Gakko -- can compete with each other based upon the quality of the education they offer.
 By 1998, enrollment in two-year colleges had fallen well below 100% capacity, and it is likely, if present trends continue, that in ten years, given the decreasing population of 18-year-olds, as many as 100 universities may have gone bankrupt. At that point this recent legal revision will look like a rescue operation, funneling much-needed enrollees into its depleted universities.
 

9-1. The Illusion of  the 'University'

 In Japan, the word 'university' carries no specific connotation, ranging from concept of a highly specialized research institution, to that of a virtual degree mill. In fact, there is little in common between Tokyo University and many newly established local 'universities,' and the very use of this broad-ranging term is one major cause of confusion on these matters.
Some background here is in order. Japan's present circumstance can be understood as a kind of hybrid case.  In Europe, the university is an elite educational and research institute, with the right to offer a doctoral degree and an enrollment of around 10 to 20% of the college-age population. Japan's highest-ranked institutions, modeled originally after the European system, have a similar percentage of enrollment. In the U.S. this percentage is more than 60% -- due at least in part to the fact that the notion of 'university' and 'college' encompasses a great many post-secondary educational institutes, strictly research universities being only a portion of the group. In Japan, the percentage of enrolled college-age students is roughly equivalent to that of the U.S. if we include all universities, along with other non-university institutes such as Senmon Gakko.   Nonetheless, the economic factors cut differently in Japan: since 90% of the population are middle-class, and since the government subsidizes education, the enrollment at the elite schools is not economically-driven, as it is to a significant extent in the U.S. The only determining factor are the scores the candidate receives on the entrance exams.
By the late 1960s, economic growth had made it possible for universities, of whatever rank, to fill their new quota of students year by year with little special effort. This produced an illusory sense of security within those institutions, because though the students were being drawn from all walks of life, and though the economy was beginning to generate new training demands for the incoming generation of job-seekers, the universities could still continue to perform their self-appointed role as research schools modeled after the old Imperial universities.  Practical education, as we have seen already, was virtually ignored, and schools that provided it were derided.
Though this remains largely true throughout the university system, recent economic changes have created an interesting irony.  The recent depletion in enrollment has prompted many mass-access universities to institute new programs in nursing education, computer education, international studies and social welfare -- the very kinds of programs that 'universities' have traditionally shunned.  And so far, the evidence indicates what we would expect of an institution that feels compelled to offer the kind of program it has little regard for.  These programs are essentially marketing devices to enhance dwindling enrollment, and offer little substantial in the way of practical training.  Yet they attract students nonetheless, simply because of this illusory attraction many feel for the 'university.'
 

9-2. University and Senmon Gakko

 We have already mentioned the fact that, despite the popular aura accorded to the 'university,' government regulation specifies little difference between university and Senmon Gakko (the main distinction having to do with the ownership of facilities). Even the academic credentials of university faculty have lately been loosened, as mass-access universities are now hiring faculty whose background is purely business-related.  This is a change that has not been universally welcomed within the precincts of those universities, where many fear that their institution is being 'degraded' to the level of a Senmon Gakko.
 After the War, under the directive of the GHQ, almost all private universities, along with some miscellaneous schools, were regulated as 'universities' (Senmon Gakko being re-instituted through the 1976 regulation).  But the damage, so to speak, was already done: the notion of 'university' was hopelessly confused, and this has contributed greatly to the dangerous abuse the term has been subjected to ever since.  For on the one hand, the 'university' was by now popularly regarded as the natural home for the aspiring masses; yet university faculty and administrators, who could now benefit from the large enrollments this produced, still derided the very kind of education that these same masses now required.
One can even notice the poor quality of popular education simply by checking a typical school's website. It is remarkable today that a school that purports to offer information technology produces webpages that would embarrass a teen-age computer enthusiast!  Clearly these schools have nothing to offer in the realm of computer science, or even nursing training, that a top Senmon Gakko would not improve upon.
 School has its own culture, fostered by its own history. Yet this had been virtually ignored during the last two decades, as businessmen have grown impatient with the dismal quality of university education, and have arranged for new 'universities' to be quickly built, thinking that the culture of a school is easily grafted onto its physical facilities. The quality of education in traditional Senmon Gakko is typically better than any such newly hastily established institute.
  Yet there are dangers here for the Senmon Gakko, many of which are lured by the attractions of the 'university' designation.  Such a designation requires a substantial land-holding, and the temptation here is for the Senmon Gakko to squeeze its financial resources in order to collect real estate, simply so that they can be awarded the honorific title.  The short-term advantage is obvious, yet over the long run this would be a disastrous move, since it could only impair the quality of education, which depends not on mass-produced lectures or expensive land acquisition, but upon high quality teachers and information related facilities. (In Japan, one lecture class in university usually contains 100 students or more, and computer facilities are notoriously paltry, lacking even Internet access in many cases.)   All the resources spent on meeting the formal requirement for university status should be spent instead on meeting the real demands of quality education.
 
 
 

9-3. The Impact of Legal Revision

 The new transfer regulation, allowing easier transfer from Senmon Gakko to university, is really a response to this intention on the part of certain Senmon Gakko to 'upgrade' to university status. The advantage here is that students can make the institutional change without having to pass the normal battery of rigorous entrance exams.  (At transfer, all a student needs to pass is a specialty exam based upon her course of study since high school.) This is particularly well-suited to students whose talents are highly concentrated in a more narrow academic range: they can still eventually receive a full university education, simply by passing the exam most closely related to their area of strength.  This also obviously enhances the pool of students from the university administrative standpoint: until this revision, universities typically failed to enroll a substantial number of promising students, simply because they lacked high-level achievement across the board.
 This makes the Senmon Gakko in some ways similar to the American junior college, which is often seen as a kind of second-level entry to more prestigious four-year schools. This has worried some in the current hierarchy, who fear that Senmon Gakko will turn into little more than test-coaching schools.  But this fear is of course groundless, since the students who take this route into university enrollment are no less well-trained in their specialty than they would have been had the transfer regulation never been instituted. And there remains the social need that Senmon Gakko have been fulfilling quite well -- training students in areas that universities have continued to ignore.
 All this means that, from now on, institutions of higher learning are thrown into a healthy competition with one another -- a consequence that can only benefit the entire system.
 
 

10 Summary

 Contrary to the common concept of university, Senmon Gakko is peculiar to Japan, and its institutional status has changed often. This creates a situation somewhat like that of a small boat drifting on the waves between institutional status and popular reputation. And this fact has created a certain confusion in the popular mind as well as within the precincts of institutional power, as to what exactly the mission of the Senmon Gakko is.  But that same confusion is reflected in a serious gap between the theory and practice of mass-access universities, whose faltering reputations are finally catching up to the realities of the education they actually offer.
  The place of the Senmon Gakko in the history of Japanese education is gradually becoming apparent, and the most recent legal modifications will make this even more evident, as the artificial barriers that have set apart the 'university' are being replaced by an arrangement that, in effect, treats the entire system as a unified whole.
 What the best Senmon Gakko offer the current educational scene nowadays is what it has always offered: a field of educational experimentation in the very best sense, where curricular innovation need not await centralized approval, and where the demands of a changing society will be recognized far in advance of the intuitions of entrenched functionaries or sequestered academicians.

（＊１） 'Higher Education' here includes University, Junior College, College of Technology and any Senmon Gakko that offers a degree or an associate's degree. This does not  include other Post Secondary  Schools, which do not offer any degree.<back>

（＊２）The translations of the term 'Senmon Gakko' have been given: "Special Course School," "Special Training School," "Professional School," "Special Course College," " Special Training College" or "Vocational School."<back>

（＊３） Higher Education which offers bachelors and associate degrees, such as the  University, the Junior College, the College of Technology and Special Course School  but excluding  the miscellaneous schools (Kakusyu Gakko). The Ministry of Education(Monbusho). 1995<back>

（＊４）Professor Fujii Takayuki, Kyoto University, 1997.<back>

（＊５） Professor Fujii Takayuki, Kyoto University, 1997.<back>

（＊６） Philip G.Altbach and Viswanathan Selvarantnam, From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian university, 1989.<back>

（＊７） Nakayama, Shigeru, Western Impact against Japan's Higher Education, included in: From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian University, edited by Philip G.Altbach and Viswanathan Selvarantnam. 1989<back>

（＊８） Toshiaki Ohkubo, Japan's University, Tamagawa U press, 1997(originally published in 1942)<back>

（＊９） Toshiaki Ohkubo, op.cit..<back>

（＊10） Sumio Makino, The genius of Information, Accumu 1996, Kyoto<back>

（＊11） The origin of Ashikaga school is not clear. : Ken Ishikawa, A Research of Japanese School History, 1977<back>

（＊12） Ken Ishikawa, The History of Japanese Mass Education, 1929<back>

（＊13） Ken Ishikawa, op.cit..<back>

（＊14） Japanese Classics is a study aiming at original Japanese philosophy before Confucianism and Buddhism were imported.<back>

（＊15） Ken Ishikawa, Research of Japanese Education, 1977<back>

（＊16） Toshiaki Ohkubo, Japan's University, Tamagawa U press, 1997(originally published in 1942<back>

（＊17） Samuel P. Huntiongton, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, 1996<back>

（＊18）Samuel P. Huntiongton, op.cit..<back>

（＊19） Philip G.Altbach, Patterns in Higher Education Development -- Towards the Year 2000--, included in, Higher Education in An International Perspective---Critical Issues, Edited by Philip G. Altbach, 1996,  International Bureau of Education, 1996<back>

（＊20） Michio Nagai, The Modernization and Education, Tokyo U Press, 1969<back>

（＊21）Clark Kerr, The Uses of University, Harvard University Press. 1995<back>

（＊22） William K. Cummings, Education and Equality in Japan, 1980, Princeton U press<back>

（＊23） Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 1946, reprinted 1989, Houghton Mifflin<back>

（＊24）Burton R. Clark, The Higher Education System, 1983<back>

（＊25） Shigeru Nakayama, Western Impact against Japan's Higher Education, included in: From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian university, edited by Altbach, G.,Philip, and Selvarantnam, Viswanathan. 1989<back>

（＊26） In December, Daigakko was renamed "the university" (Daigaku), Tokio-Kaisei Gakko was renamed "the Southern University"(Daigaku Nankou) and Igakusho renamed  "the Eastern University"(Daigaku Toukou).<back>

（＊27） The two schools were renamed again as "Number One High School in Number One university Ward" and "Number One Medical School of Number One University Ward", and in 1877, these were renamed again and again "Tokyo Kaisei School" and "Tokyo Medicine School" (Tokio-Kaisei gakko and Tokio Igakko).<back>

（＊28） Toshiaki Ohkubo, Japan's University, 1942, reprinted in 1997<back>

（＊29） Modern and Current Japan;s Education History, Citizen's Education Lab, 1973, Soudo Bunka<back>

（＊30） Toshiaki Ohkubo, op.cit..<back>

（＊31） Ikuo Amano, Japan's Structure of Higher Education, Tamagawa U Press, 1994<back>

（＊32） The 50 Year History of Tokyo University, Tokyo Imperial U Press, 1920<back>

（＊33） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊34） Ikuo Amano, op.cit.., 1994<back>

（＊35）David Murray was President of Rutgers College and one of the founders of The Alfa Beta Kappa Society.<back>

（＊36） Michio Nagai, The Modernization and Education, 1969 Tokyo U Press.<back>

（＊37） In 1881, Tokyo Technical School was founded, and in 1885, Tokyo Commercial School was transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and Technology. Later on, the former became Tokyo Institute of Technology and the latter became Hitosyubashi University.<back>

（＊38） Ikuo Amano, op.cit.,1969<back>

（＊39） Ikuo Amano, op.cit., 1994<back>

（＊40） Min Han, Japan's Senmon Gakko, Tamagawa U Press 1996<back>

（＊41） Robert L. Cutts, An Empire of Schools -- Japan's Universities and the molding of a National Power Elite,  An East Gate Book, New York, 1997<back>

（＊42） Sapporo Agricultural School was granted land from the local government, rather like an American land-grant. This school later became Hokkaido Imperial University.<back>

（＊43） Clark Kerr, The Uses of the University (4th edition), Cambridge: Harvard U Press, 1996<back>

（＊44） Ikuo Amano, Old System Senmon Gakko,<back>

（＊45） Burton R. Clark, op.cit.., 1983<back>

（＊46） Toshiaki Ohkubo, op.cit.., 1942, reprinted in 1997<back>

（＊47） Philip G. Altbach, From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian university, edited by Philip G. Altbach, and Viswanathan Selvarantnam. 1989<back>

（＊48） Michio Nagai, op.cit..1969,<back>

（＊49） The Eighty-Year History of Waseda University, Waseda U press1962<back>

（＊50） Burton R. Clark, The Higher Education System, 1983<back>

（＊51） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊52） The Publishing Committee in The Ministry of Education, History of the development of Education, 1941, The Ministry of Education<back>

（＊53） The Statistical Data by Japan Empire, Annual Report by the Ministry of Educaion,<back>

（＊54） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊55） Ikuo Amano, Research of the Modern Japan's Higher Education, 1989, Tamagawa U press. p34<back>

（＊56） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊57） The Eighty-Year History of Waseda University, Waseda U press1962<back>

（＊58） The Eighty-Year History of Waseda University, Waseda U press1962<back>

（＊59） Ikuo Amano, op.cit., 1989<back>

（＊60） Ikuo Amano, op.cit., 1993<back>

（＊61） Ikuo Amano, op.cit., 1989<back>

（＊62） T.J.Pempel, Patterns of Japanese Policy Making  p.30.<back>

（＊63） Burton R. Clark, op.cit.., 1983<back>

（＊64） Ikuo Amano, Japan's Structure of Higher Education, 1986, Tamagawa University Press.<back>

（＊65） Burton R. Clark, op.cit., 1983<back>

（＊66） The Grace Silver Watch: From 1899 to 1918, as an Imperial measure for encouraging young men to study, the Silver Watch was given to the highest-ranking graduate students. -- Kenji Kojima, The Grace Silver Watch, (Bulletin of Japan Fukushi U), 1989<back>

（＊67） Philip G. Altbach, From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian university, edited by Philip G. Altbach, and Viswanathan Selvarantnam. 1989<back>

（＊68） Chinese Yin-Yang Philosophy.<back>

（＊69） Mark T. Orr,  Education Reform Policy in Occupied Japan, 1954, Japanese Translation<back>

（＊70） Established for the war regime to foster teachers of Youth Schools.<back>

（＊71） Established for the war regime.<back>

（＊72） 6-3-3-4 educational system refers to six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school, three years of senior high school and four years of college.<back>

（＊73） Terasaki and others, History of School, Vol. 1, 1979, Daiichi hoki<back>

（＊74） Toshio Nakauchi, The History of Modern Educational Philosophy, 1973, Kokudoshya<back>

（＊75） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, The Birth of the new-system university, 1996, Tamagawa U press<back>

（＊76） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, op.cit..<back>

（＊77） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, op.cit.<back>

（＊78） Ikuo Amano, Japan's Structure of Higher Education, Tamagawa U press,1986<back>

（＊79） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊80） See Part 2, 6-4<back>

（＊81） Ikuo Amano, op.cit.<back>

（＊82） Shigeru Nakayama, Western Impact against Japan's Higher Education, included in: From Dependence to Autonomy - The Development of Asian university, edited by Altbach, G.,Philip, and Selvarantnam, Viswanathan. 1989<back>

（＊83） as quoted in Shiro Kurauchi, A Discussion of the Role of Sensyu Gakko, 1980,<back>

（＊84） Article 89:(No public money or other property shall be expended or appropriated for the use, benefit or maintenance of any religious institution or association, or for any charitable, educational or benevolent enterprises not under the control of public authority.)<back>

（＊85） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊86） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, op.cit..<back>

（＊87） Katsuo Ogiwara, The Structure of Japan's Higher Educational Institutes, 1996<back>

（＊88） The compilation of educational resources after the war, San-ichi publishing, 1983, Vol.7 p77-98<back>

（＊89） The compilation of educational resources after the war, op.cit..<back>

（＊90） School Education Law, Article 70-2<back>

（＊91） The compilation of educational resources after the war, op.cit..<back>

（＊92） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, op.cit..<back>

（＊93） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..,<back>

（＊94） Michio Nagai, The Stiffness of Japan's Education, 1983, San-Ichi publishing<back>

（＊95） Min Han, Japan's Senmon Gakko, 1996 Tamagawa U Press<back>

（＊96） School Education Law,<back>

（＊97） Kazuyuki Kitamura, The Research of Accreditation and Approval of University, "Daigaku Secchi no Kenkyu", 1990 Tohshindo Press<back>

（＊98） Compared with the New York and California systems, according to : Kazuyuki Kitamura,  op.cit.., A Handbook of Accreditation 1990-92,  A Guide to Self-Study for Commission Evaluation 1990-92, A Manual for the Evaluation Visit 1990-92,  by Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and, New England Association of Schools and Colleges, (Japanese Translation).<back>

（＊99） The History of KCG, Accumu 1987, http://www.kcg.ac.jp/acm/accumu.html;  http://www.kcg.edu ,<back>

（＊100） Arthur M., Cohen, and Florence B. Brawer, The American Community College, 1996, Jossey-Bass<back>

（＊101） Ernest L.Boyer, College: The Undergraduate Experience in America, 1987, Japanese translation.<back>

（＊102） Outline of Education in Japan 1997, The Ministry of Education.<back>

（＊103） School Statistics 1996, The Ministry of Education<back>

（＊104） OECD: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.<back>

（＊105） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊106） It might be interesting to note that the word "bachelor" in Japanese is "Gaku-shi". The direct translation is "Learned man" or "studied man" and the term for "warrior's aristocracy" is "Bu-shi," which means "brave man" or "warrior man." The "shi" means "man who made himself by brave study" in old Chinese. In the Edo period just before the Meiji revolution,  "shi" alone meant "warrior aristocracy," so that, after the revolution, the word bachelor, "Gaku-shi," might imply such higher class still.<back>

（＊107） Ikuo Amano, op.cit..<back>

（＊108） 'Higher Education' here includes University, Junior College, College of Technology and any Senmon Gakko that offers a degree or an associate's degree. This does not  include other Sensyu Gakko and the Miscellaneous Schools, which do not offer any degree.<back>

（＊109） The pre war system required teachers of Senmon Gakko who had bachelor degree. Then, teachers of Senmon Gakko were usually the graduates from the Imperial University.<back>

（＊110） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, The Birth of the new-system university, 1996, Tamagawa U press<back>

（＊111） Gary, H. Tsuchimochi, op.cit..<back>

（＊112） Terasaki and others, History of School, Vol. 1, 1979, Daiichi hoki<back>

（＊113） Kazuyuki Kitamura, The Research of Accreditation and Approval of University, 'Daigaku Secchi no Kenkyu', 1990 Tohshindo Press<back>

（＊114） Community College<back>

（＊115） OECD: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development., Japan's Educational Policy, 1976<back>

（＊116） Ikuo Amano, Japan's University, Tamagawa U Press, 1997<back>

（＊117） Shiro, Kurauchi,op.cit., Min, Han, op.cit.,<back>