The future of higher education in Japan: Changing the legal status of national universities

Japanese universities have beentightly controlled by the Ministry of Educationand it has often been pointed out that theirautonomy has been ambiguous. In the late 1990s,however, the Japanese government started thedebate about introducing an IndependentAdministrative Institution system in order toderegulate its authority and to make therelationship between the government andnational universities clear. If this systemwere actually introduced, universities in Japanwould not only enjoy a great amount ofautonomy, but would also face financialproblems. The reality is unclear so far, butsome national universities have already startedto reform themselves radically in preparationfor the introduction.