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Getting an education in Tokyo; from kindergarten to college, the opportunities for an English-language education in Tokyo have never been better. But how do you make the right choice? - International Education

Japan, Inc., Jan, 2004 by John Dodd

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The MBA

MBAs have been a neglected area of education in Japan, and in 2001 there were only 17 Japanese graduate schools and seven non-Japanese MBA programs in the entire country. That number is starting to rise now, and there are likely around 1,000 MBA students (based on data from Nikkei, 2002) enrolled in the nation at any particular time. According to comments by MBA prep organizations, there are another 2,000 people a year taking MBA courses in English overseas. Until now, studying local has been a second choice. But how much easier and cheaper if quality courses were available in Japan? Well, now they are.

Temple

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Founded in 1982, Temple University is the oldest and largest American university operating in Japan. While other foreign-based colleges have come and gone, Temple has survived, thanks to a number of innovations in the market.

One of these innovations has come through an understanding that the local English-speaking adult student population (Japanese and foreign), while wanting to gain higher qualifications, was hamstrung by the need to hold down full-time jobs and support families and mortgages. Thus in 1996, Temple became the first MBA school in Tokyo to offer an executive MBA (EMBA) which would allow working executives to study in their free time. 200 professionals have since gone through the program, and it is now ranked 14th in the USA and 25th worldwide in term of quality and performance.

Indeed, innovation is a hallmark of Temple University, perhaps appropriate given that it offers MBAs. According to William Swinton, TUJ Assistant Dean and a graduate of the program, "the beauty of EMBA classes, held on Saturdays only, is that our students can continue to work as they study. While an EMBA offers usable skills and an immediate return on investment, the ultimate value comes in personal development. At TUL we help managers understand themselves so they can become effective leaders."

Funding options

As we noted at the beginning of this article, the international schools and colleges lie outside the jurisdiction of the MEXT. This is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the schools have the freedom to model themselves on some of the world's leading academic institutions and thus are able to turn out graduates of extremely high quality. Most would agree this is preferential to the 100-year-old Japanese school system, which hasn't changed much over a century. (The high-collared uniforms still worn by school boys today were adapted from the German military school system in the 1870s.)

The downside is that there is no external funding for international schools from the Japanese government, even though foreign parents are taxed at the same rate as regular Japanese workers--the rationale being that foreign kids should attend Japanese schools (too bad if they can't speak the language). As a result, only the biggest and fittest foreign schools actually get to grow, while many others are hunkering down in survival mode. Things are being further exacerbated by the fall-off of expatriates being assigned to Japan these days, as many companies would rather send them to China.

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Getting an education in Tokyo; from kindergarten to college, the opportunities for an English-language education in Tokyo have never been better. But how do you make the right choice? - International Education

Japan, Inc., Jan, 2004 by John Dodd

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