{"id":750,"date":"2015-09-22T20:21:05","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T19:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=750"},"modified":"2016-03-25T17:30:14","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T17:30:14","slug":"japans-education-ministry-says-to-axe-social-science-and-humanities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=750","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Education Ministry Says to Axe Social Science and Humanities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Humanities and Social Sciences academic departments are being\u00a0shut down by the Japanese government which has ordered their eventual closure all over the country. This decision concerns the majority of national universities, and starkly foregrounds questions surrounding the necessity of scholarship, the use(s) of HSS and how the ‘value’ of academic research is\u00a0assessed.<\/em><\/p>\n

At least 26 of Japan\u2019s 60 national universities that have departments of the humanities or the social sciences plan to close those faculties after a ministerial request from the Japanese government, according to a new survey of university presidents<\/a> by The Yomiuri Shimbun<\/em> newspaper.<\/p>\n

A June 8 letter from Hakubun Shimomura, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, to all of Japan\u2019s 86 national universities and all of the nation\u2019s higher education organizations asks them to take \u201cactive steps to abolish [social science and humanities] organizations or to convert them to serve areas that better meet society\u2019s needs.\u201d The call focuses on undergraduate departments and graduate programs that train teachers, and includes the areas of law and economics.<\/p>\n

To back up the request \u2013 which was made \u201cin the light of the decrease of the university-age population, the demand for human resources and the quality control of research and teaching institutions and the function of national universities\u201d \u2013 the ministry pointed to the financial support it provides the schools in the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n

This focus on bending universities to serve \u201careas which have strong needs\u201d (and the implication that social science and humanities can\u2019t help in that regard) are of a piece with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s economic ideas, or \u2018Abenomics,\u2019 that focus resolutely on direct and immediate industrial and employment benefits, argues an editorial in The Japan Times<\/em><\/a>. The newspaper recalled Abe\u2019s remarks in 2014 before the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in which he said, \u201cRather than deepening academic research that is highly theoretical, we will conduct more practical vocational education that better anticipates the needs of society.\u201d (With Abenomics now stalling,<\/a> Abe has also portrayed Japanese science and technology as in peril, telling the nation\u2019s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation<\/a> in June that \u201cthe frontlines of Japan\u2019s research fields have weakened, causing our research capabilities to lag behind others).\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> criticized Abe for shortsightedness:<\/p>\n

Pursuing studies of humanities and social sciences may not produce quick economic results. But shunning them risks producing people who are only interested in the narrow fields of their majors. Studies of literature, history, philosophy and social sciences are indispensable in creating people who can view developments in society and politics with a critical eye. In this sense, Shimomura\u2019s move may be interpreted as an attempt by the government to produce people who accept what it does without criticism. Abe, Shimomura and education ministry officials should realize that a decline in the study of humanities and social sciences will likely hamper the growth of creative work even in the fields of technology.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun<\/em>, of the 26 universities cutting their humanities and social science offerings, 17 intend to stop recruiting students in the areas and all of the 26 plan to stop offering so-called \u201cno certificate\u201d courses that don\u2019t require latent prospective teaches to obtain a teaching certificate in those areas.<\/p>\n

While some organizations, such as the executive board of the Science Council of Japan, made quick and strident objections to the ministry\u2019s request, even some ostensible supports of the disciplines couched their support deferentially. For example, Shojiro Nishio, the new president of Osaka University (the largest national university in Japan), both backed the idea of the value but also encouraged them to \u201cthink proactively about what you can do,\u201d reported Kiyomi Arai of The Yomiuri Shimbum<\/em>.<\/p>\n

According to Arai:<\/p>\n

Nishio says achievements are not easily seen in the fields of humanities and social sciences, but these studies are indispensable as they bring diversity to society. Specializing in data engineering, Nishio is a world leader in information technology, particularly in analyzing big data. As a researcher, he believes studies in the humanities field do not tend to have a \u201cstrong focus on responding to the demands of society.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not every university was so circumspect, and some notable institutions, such as the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, said they had no current intention of complying. The president\u2019s office of Shiga University told Nomiura<\/em> that, \u201cDemocracy cannot be preserved if the \u2018intellectual knowledge\u2019 of humanities and social science studies is cast aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Science Council of Japan put out a statement<\/a> late last month expressing its \u201cprofound concern over the potentially grave impact that such an administrative directive implies for the future of the HSS {humanities and social sciences] in Japan and the very idea of the university itself, irrespective of whether it is privately or publicly funded.\u201d That statement acknowledges that HSS could do a better job of clarifying its value, even as it stresses how integral HSS is to a \u201cbalanced\u201d university and to the larger Japanese society.<\/p>\n

The International Social Science Council (to which the Science Council of Japan belongs) applauded the council\u2019s statement<\/a> and for addressing how HSS is \u201cintegral to advancing knowledge on the challenges facing society today, both in Japan and internationally. They play a unique and vital role in critically thinking about and assessing the human condition, and for the understanding, foresight, governance and continued development of contemporary societies.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Courtesy of Social Science Space. Original article here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Humanities and Social Sciences academic departments are being\u00a0shut down by the Japanese government which has ordered their eventual closure all over the country. This decision concerns the majority of national universities, and starkly foregrounds questions surrounding the necessity of scholarship, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127,125,130,128,126,129],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-humanities","tag-japan","tag-research-evaluation","tag-scholarship","tag-social-science","tag-university"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}