The purpose of this study is to explore the transformation of perceptions toward the public good of higher education in post-war Japan. We foreground the perspectives of three actors: the government, economic organisations, and associations of universities. The public good of higher education has been a vital topic of research in Western countries, and a diverse body of research and discussion has accumulated. Following neoliberalism’s rise in 1980s, discussion of the public good was revived to counteract neoliberal higher education policy and reduced public expenditure. However, within Japan the “public good” has hardly been mentioned in domestic discussion. This is partly because the translated term for the public good in Japanese, “kōkyō-zai”, conveys only economic definitions of the public, and thereby restricts discussion of publicness in higher education. In this study, therefore, the public good is decoded into three public functions of higher education in post-war Japan: knowledge creation, human resource development, and social contribution.
This research is based on discourse analysis of three actors’ official documents. As an analytical framework, we present on a horizontal axis the timeline from the end of WWII to the present, divided into five distinct periods. On the vertical axis, we consider the three public functions of higher education. The findings of this study indicate that a long-lasting reluctance towards social contribution among national universities restricted discussion of the public good of higher education in Japan until recently. In addition, the three actors’ perceptions toward the three public functions of higher education appear to have converged in the last 15 years.
The purpose of this study is to explore the transformation of perceptions toward the public good of higher education in post-war Japan. We foreground the perspectives of three actors: the government, economic organisations, and associations of universities. The public good of higher education has been a vital topic of research in Western countries, and a diverse body of research and discussion has accumulated. Following neoliberalism’s rise in 1980s, discussion of the public good was revived to counteract neoliberal higher education policy and reduced public expenditure. However, within Japan the “public good” has hardly been mentioned in domestic discussion. This is partly because the translated term for the public good in Japanese, “kōkyō-zai”, conveys only economic definitions of the public, and thereby restricts discussion of publicness in higher education. In this study, therefore, the public good is decoded into three public functions of higher education in post-war Japan: knowledge creation, human resource development, and social contribution.
This research is based on discourse analysis of three actors’ official documents. As an analytical framework, we present on a horizontal axis the timeline from the end of WWII to the present, divided into five distinct periods. On the vertical axis, we consider the three public functions of higher education. The findings of this study indicate that a long-lasting reluctance towards social contribution among national universities restricted discussion of the public good of higher education in Japan until recently. In addition, the three actors’ perceptions toward the three public functions of higher education appear to have converged in the last 15 years.
You can read the full Working Paper here.
