The Japanese Ministry of Education wants their universities
to close down their humanities and social science departments. Seventeen have already said they will comply.
Japan has a low birth rate and a very poor record of
absorbing immigrants. Now they want to
scale back the education that is the major source of broad understanding and
innovation.
What they seem to be missing is that today’s “practical”
fields are based on ideas invented yesterday in the liberal arts fields.
Japan was once in the “passing lane”, set to overtake the
U.S. and European economies and creative leaders. For the past generation, though, Japanese
society has become increasingly sclerotic, literally and figuratively.
Choosing against the future of educational breadth is, I
believe, a choice for slow death of their culture.
2 comments:
I remember a comment from an address in my much earlier Centre days about the liberal arts: With a liberal arts education, one can take a few general principles and be prepared to solve most questions with the appropriate information
RE: "a very poor record of absorbing immigrants. Now they want to scale back the education that is the major source of broad understanding and innovation.
What they seem to be missing is that today’s 'practical' fields are based on ideas invented yesterday in the liberal arts fields."
This does not surprise me. Having spent some considerable time in Japan, my experience is that they are still essentially a very xenophobic people. The concept of the foreigner as gaijin remains, and the presumed superiority of the Japanese race makes them one of the most racially prejudiced cultures I have seen in my travels around the world. It results in the reaction you write about, the rejection core the liberal arts philosophy of equality and acceptance of all races, creeds, and cultures.
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