This is actually is serious stuff. Japanese education suffers from an identity crisis. The young generation brought up on affluence, with often no siblings find school tedious, boring, and irrelevant. It is true that professors are seen as boring, teaching with out of date curriculum. Their parents also don't quite understand what their children want. There is a huge social gulf among the Japanese generations. And with labor markets looking bleak when seen from the high school and colleage grad's point of view, there is little interest in serious study, career goals, etc. since the life-time employment system has to a great degree unravelled.
One omission that the journalist makes is that India has always had a special place in the hearts of Japanese, especially the more senior ones. This was because of one dissenting Indian judge during the Tokyo trials led by US Allies. In fact this judge was especially honored (at a private ceremony in 2006) with the war dead memorial, enshrined at Yasukuni shrine, that dreaded place that makes Chinese and Korean blood boil and for unknown reasons the NYT's too! Some what related, if you are interested in Japan, India, etc. please see: http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/publication_details.asp?pubtypeid=WP&pubid=697 Happy new year! Cheers, Anthony xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Anthony P. D'Costa, Professor Comparative International Development University of Washington 1900 Commerce Street Tacoma, WA 98402, USA Phone: (253) 692-4462 Fax : (253) 692-5718 http://tinyurl.com/yhjzrm xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
