Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Higher Education Sector in Japan in the time of COVID-19

By Nozomi Sakata

Like in many other countries, the current pandemic has forced universities and colleges in Japan to shut down their buildings. This is likely to continue for the coming months. Lectures and seminars have been postponed or moved online. Students cannot make use of libraries and other facilities. Outside the campus, restaurants and private supplementary schools – two of the most popular workplaces for university students – have closed or suspended their businesses. Taking out a loan is relatively uncommon in Japan, so most students cover their fees and living expenses with part-time jobs and remittances from their parents, whose income has also dropped. Consequently, some students are falling into poverty, making 1 in 13 consider giving up their study completely.

This has led to student movements across the country asking universities for either a refund or a reduction of tuition fees. A campaign by Change.org has collected nearly 5,000 signatures online and a Twitter hashtag ‘#学費減額運動’ (fee reduction movement) has been spreading.

早稲田大学、慶應義塾大学や同志社大学等の学費減免の署名活動に賛同し、医療創生大学をはじめ全国の医療系学校の学費減免を求める署名活動を行います！
ご協力よろしくお願いします！#医療創生大学#未来の医療従事者不足を防ごう#学費減額運動 #学生署名活動#拡散希望https://t.co/i3UIPaSNHd

— 学費減免を求めるキャンペーン 医療創生大学@現在288人 (@Iryougakusei_vs) April 29, 2020

Universities and the government have responded. Over 100 universities have decided to set up their own funds to provide cash to students. The amount varies from ¥14,000 to ¥400,000 (approximately £100 to £3,000). Some institutions additionally lend students equipment necessary for online learning, such as computers and  WiFi routers, while others are sending requested books to students who are writing-up their dissertations. The student movements have also prompted the national government to take action, which has offered up to ¥200,000 to students financially affected by the outbreak. The Japan Student Services Organization has also increased the number of full scholarships and student loans.

Such generous and swift responses by the government and universities may reflect a lesson learned from the ‘lost generation’ that Japan has had since the period of economic stagnation commencing in 1991. With the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy, many new graduates at that time could not get permanent jobs. In a country where getting a life-time job immediately after one’s graduation is considered to be the gold standard, companies were reluctant to employ those who have failed to do so in the middle of their career (although the situation is changing recently). As a result, the cohorts who were on the job market around 2000 have had to take up non-formal, precarious employment over the years. Not only have life chances and opportunities been lost, but many have also not enjoyed social security benefits. Expectedly, they will have little means of financial support when they reach retirement age. Japan should avoid the formation of another lost generation – this time an ‘academic lost generation’ – to  prevent a similar case from happening again.

In terms of the bigger picture, the root cause of the lost generation may lie in a social norm that, once one strays from the conventional career path, it is very difficult to get back onto the path. As Anna Hata discusses in her CEID blog post, most university students in Japan spend the last 1 to 1.5 years of their college life job hunting. The aim of these job hunters is to start a new job in April, just after graduation. Otherwise, the chance of securing work within a ‘good’ company becomes considerably low after graduation. The rigid schedule of job hunting partly results in a lower percentage of Japanese students studying abroad compared to other neighbouring countries.

The coronavirus outbreak may bring about a change in this regard. To facilitate the internationalisation of higher education, recent years have seen a number of debates focused around shifting the start of the academic year from April to September to promote student and researcher exchanges; this has not happened until recently. Due to the pandemic, forcing schools and universities to close since April 2020, the Japanese government has entered into a discussion to start the new school year in September 2020, so that pupils and students can catch up with their studies. There are a number of issues and concerns related to making such a big decision in a short time. The issues include whether to reimburse tuition fees completely even though school teachers and university faculties have worked hard to accommodate the closure. It also makes the pupils’ starting age of compulsory education one of the oldest in the world (7 years and 5 months for the oldest pupils). Personally, I hope that the system can change to some extent to accommodate more diversity and flexibility in student life. Adopting a September start date to the academic year will require industries to adjust their recruitment schedule, possibly allowing new employees to take up their positions at different times. This can diversify the way in which Japanese students utilise their time before, during and after university. It will also facilitate student-to-student exchanges beyond the borders.

One thing that worries me as a researcher based in Japan amid the current outbreak is the virtual absence of COVID-19-related funding available outside the field of medicine. The government has allocated 2 billion yen to the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases with the aim of developing diagnostic testing measures, treatments and vaccines. Whilst these are certainly priority areas, research into humanities, social sciences and other natural sciences is also vital to tackle the virus. How are children and parents coping with school closures? Will the forced online-based remote working bring about positive and/or negative changes in different industries? What role should Japan play in international development during and after the pandemic? There are many issues that need to be urgently explored with accumulated empirical evidence. Researchers can still apply for existing calls to come up with COVID-related projects, but to my knowledge no public funding that speaks to the urgency and necessity of research outside of medicine has been announced. Compared to the wide range of funding available in Europe and North America, Japan lags behind in this regard, so I urge the funding bodies to open calls to investigate the social, cultural and economic impact that the novel coronavirus might and will continue to have in and beyond Japan.

Nozomi Sakata is a Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of International Cooperation in Education, Hiroshima University.

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Opinions expressed on the CEID Blog are only those of the author, not the Centre for Education and International Development or the UCL Institute of Education.

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