Last Friday, as I walked from Taitō to Hongō, I realized that I was following in the footsteps of
dreams, thousands of dreams, both fulfilled and shattered.
I went past Yushima Tenman-gū to see if any plum blossoms were left. I lingered to read ema, the wooden tablets on which worshippers
write their wishes. Yushima has dozens of ema boards, particularly heavily
burdened at the start of the year when students ask the enshrined deity, Sugawara no Michizane, for success in their
entrance exams. (Read more about him in
this post.)
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| There are a few plum blossoms left at Yushima. |
Yushima is close to the University of Tokyo, also known as Tōdai , which is rated the top university in Asia and one of the best in the world.
Japan's entrance exam
system can be denounced: too many exams focus on rote memorisation with
multiple-choice answers (no essays, no interpretive questions), and the outcome
of one exam can determine the rest of your life. Tōdai
itself has its critics, often due to its large number of alumni who become government bureaucrats. This,
according to naysayers, is proof that it doesn't foster creative, innovative,
discerning leaders.
Whatever you may
think, the fact remains that a Tōdai degree is virtually a guarantee of success, and it remains the Holy Grail, the Mount Olympus,
of academia in Japan. Pass the entrance exam and receive a degree, and you will
probably help to run a key Japanese company one day.
(What do I think? I think you can't get
into this university unless you have a fair amount of brain power. You may lack
charisma, social skills and perfect teeth, but if your brain doesn't run on
high octane, you're not going to make it. It should also be noted that plenty of highly gifted individuals won't reach these hallowed halls, but an ivory tower and a gilded cage isn't meant for everybody.) [Am I throwing around metaphors or what?]
So, at Yushima, this is what you see,
repeated in plea after plea after plea: 東京大学、 東京大学、東京大学。 It stands for Tōkyō Daigaku, in other words, Tokyo University.
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| Ema at Yushima |
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| 東京大学 |
A few hundred meters
up Kasuga-dori I swung right into the university's Hongō
campus, and there it was: the boards on which the university posts its entrance
exam results in early March. The exam is fiendishly difficult, the stakes are very
high, and the results are greeted with wild elation or quiet despair.
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| The boards with the entrance exam results |
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| No names, only numbers |
This year, 3009
students passed the examination, most of them young men. Proportionately the
genders are equally successful, but far fewer women attempt this exam: it is
said that for a woman, a Tōdai degree will ensure a good job but a single life.
When the results are
posted, all major media attend, it's the leading story on the evening news and
the outcomes are analysed endlessly. Even high schools are ranked according to the number of their students who pass Tōdai's entrance exam.
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| Image: Wikipedia |
Then I walked a bit
further, and I saw this: a weeping cherry next to Yasuda Auditorium, waiting to
burst into full bloom.
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| Cherry blossom buds |
All very Freudian and
symbolic, don't you think?
To the students who
made it: おめでとう！
PS: If you're interested in Japan's tertiary education system, I recommend this article.
PS: If you're interested in Japan's tertiary education system, I recommend this article.
I am interested in Japanese tertiary education. Not for me though. But first, must save a horrendous amount of money. Let's see... I have 10 more years?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the amount of $$$ in terms of scholarship from Japanese government to students in Msia studying in Japan continues to decrease. But well, at least it's still there.
Yes, it's expensive. Registration fee ¥282 000, undergraduate tuition ¥535 800 per year (unless you want to study law, in which case you'll have to pay more).
DeleteGovernment scholarship? Monbukagakushō? You may want to take a look at this website, too, for a few more options:
http://www.jasso.go.jp/index_e.html
psstt... I thought Japanese doesn't mind a set of imperfect teeth?
ReplyDeleteIt always bug me to see celebrities with crooked teeth in Japan until I got to know that it's considered cute or something. o.O
That comment about teeth was a side-swipe at Western (well, OK, American) foreigners who kutuk Tōdai.
DeleteI'm from a British colony, so per definition I have awful teeth. >:)
Yaeba? That's what you call a snaggletooth in Japanese. I don't mind the teeth as such, but I'm disturbed by the reason why it's regarded as cute on a woman: because she looks like a cute little girl who's still losing her baby teeth.
Eish!
You know that girl from AKB48 that Zaini likes? She has those teeth! O_O
DeleteI'll have to have a serious talk with Zaini in Nara ...
DeleteBy the way, can the ema filled by proxy? I mean instead of the aspiring student, can his Mom wish for it? heh heh
ReplyDeleteYes! Mom can do it, or a friendly local foreign guide can do it. :)
DeleteAs you know, there are many problems of the education in Japan. One of them is English.
ReplyDeleteI heard the news that Kyoto university would start classes which teachers use only English. Tokyo university should not get delayed the trend. :)
Tōdai is already offering undergraduate degree programmes in English as part of the so-called "Global 30 Project". (Kyōdai is another participant.) You can also write your postgraduate thesis in English. :)
DeletePS: *And* you can talk to my favourite ginkgo tree on the Hongō campus in English. I've been teaching him. :D
I see. The situation is changing compared to 10 years ago I graduated Waseda University. So I'm also interested in Waseda. :)
DeleteYou're a Waseda grad? Did you see my comment below about Waseda students? Best at English, and you're proof of that! :)
DeleteI remember when I was "studying" for the entrance exams, we would all sleep with the university akahon (the red textbooks with past exams for each university) under our pillows. It was good luck. I never wrote on an ema but if I'd known about it I probably would have. It's very crucial to get into a good university here in Japan, mostly (for me) because you can't transfer. Which I think is silly. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I graduated college. But then again, I guess that's why it doesn't really matter what major you graduate from when looking for jobs in Japan.
ReplyDeleteAlso, regarding Todai. I've heard somewhere that the kids who are smart through studying go to Todai and the kids that are born geniuses go to Hitoshubashi...think that's true? ;)
oops, i meant, when i graduated high school. all i wanted to do was go to a school with a strong baseball team. LOL
DeleteYes! It doesn't matter* what your major is when you're looking for a job in Japan; it only matters where you graduated. Companies seem to prefer to do their own training/brainwashing.
Delete*Excluding professions like lawyers, doctors, etc.
I sometimes teach students at my eikaiwa. I can't recall Hitotsubashi students, so I'll take your word for it. ;) The best English speakers all seem to come from Waseda. If the student is from Keio, it's a toss-up: either he's very good, or he's very bad but has a very rich father. >:)
High school in rural South Africa was very simple: you went to whatever school was closest.
DeleteI broke a family tradition when I insisted on going to the University of Stellenbosch instead of the University of the Orange Free State, where my dad used to lecture (in law) in his young days.
I wanted a university with mountains! :p
I had a friend who taught at the eikaiwa program that Waseda has in their curriculum. It's apparently like having an eikaiwa school inside the university...maybe it's working?
DeleteI do know Keio has a high school in New York and has a lot of returnees at the university. The good and the bad are usually the ones who took the entrance exam to enter the university or the ones who entered from kindergarten or grade school and have just stayed till university.
Was your commute to your University very far? I always wanted to live in a dorm on campus, but we rarely see those in Japan.
Whatever Waseda is doing, it's working.
DeleteI've heard about Keio's school system, from kindergarten straight through to a degree. I've also tried to teach some of those kids at my eikaiwa. It's painful. (>_<)
I lived in a dorm in my first year; after that I lived by myself in a small apartment in central Stellenbosch. I walked to classes!
When I returned to Stellenbosch many years later (to work and complete postgraduate studies), I bought a house and zoomed around in my blue Beetle, Hobbit. :)
Companies have dorms; universities don't (in Tokyo). Why's that?
Maybe the lack of land on campus? Or because most of the kids can actually commute to the university from home? Only the kids from regional cities actually need to move into dorms in Tokyo. My university had a couple of dorms but they were all pretty far away from the campus.
DeleteI think companies sometimes have dorms because they are responsible for their employees and it's sometimes easier to have a dorm when you recruit employees from various places, rather than finding them an apartment on the market. Many companies actually just rent out a couple of floors of an apartment building under a corporate lease. My company has them too but you can only live in the dorms if you're under 30 ;)
Ah, yes, it's probably the lack (and/or cost) of land in Tokyo. University dorms always seem to be halfway to Hokkaido, or at least in the bundu (see sidebar) of Saitama. :p
DeleteI can't get used to the idea that it's the company's responsibility to find/provide housing. Where I come from, it's a very different approach: "You want to work here? Find your own accommodation."
What really astonishes me, though, is how cheap company accommodation in Tokyo is. I've spoken to young office workers who barely pay ¥20 000. OK, it's for a small bedroom and a shared bathroom, but still!
Even married workers can get bigger apartments/houses at very low costs. Just the other day I spoke to a man who works at Nisshin Seifun. He has a house in Setagaya; his company pays 90% of his rent. (Or perhaps bond; I can't remember.) Jealous!
When U was in a company dorm it seemed to me to be a way for them to assert control over their employees more than anything else. No women allowed, meals at set hours, out in the middle of nowhere with no real public transport...
DeleteI did read about some rural unis trying to attract students by building cushy dorms with onsen... But the big Tokyo unis don't have to do that and besides, who would want to have the responsibility of looking after Japanese UNO students?!?
Uni students that is... I dunno about UNO students, they may be perfectly orderly! ;)
DeleteMy employer in control of my whole life? No, thank you, I'd rather sleep in a blue tent!
DeleteUnited Nations Organization students? Did you know that there's a United Nations University in Aoyama? I can't quite figure out where they fit into the bigger scheme. They don't appear anywhere on university rankings, but they seem to have some reputation as a think tank.
Japan has too many universities, but that's another topic for another day.
The prices you are quoting as expensive are national uni prices, which are half the cost of private unis. Private unis often have much higher "joining fees" as well. I am very sceptical about Global 30 - the English level just isn't there.
ReplyDeleteThere is such a disconnect between administrators and needs of the students in the future. There is little effort to find or cultivate teaching faculty that are qualified in both EFL and content material. If the illustrious institution you worked at had half a brain, they'd nab you for their journalism classes.... I'll save my ranting till I have an ume shu about being switched to a subject I am patently unqualifed to teach, ---- 3 publications an Masters and you're qualified.
Back to the topic though, congrats to those who made it & may they make the most of their opportunity for not just themselves, but for society. Hiro's niece was in a sweat about whether she would pass the high school entrance exam... I didn't like to tell her that in Akita everyone will get in to a public high school because there are so few students and they need to keep teachers employed. She got in, stress levels receded and the education treadmill continues uninterrupted.
Oh, help, yes: private universities are astronomically expensive. I've heard that Aoyama Gakuin is the most expensive university in Tokyo, with annual fees close to ¥1,5 million. Sophia University also has mind-boggling fees.
Delete(Why are universities linked to Christian churches so expensive? Are they really better? You have to pay to get into heaven?)
If universities were serious about English, they would appoint native speakers as full-time staff, but we all know that's not going to happen. It's that old chicken-and-egg situation: if you want properly qualified teachers, you're going to have to pay them proper salaries; if you merely want an endless supply of fresh faces, you'll get McEnglish.
Congrats to your niece! Next stop, Akita International University? ;)
DeletePS: Journalism? Infra dignitatem! :p
DeleteAoyama the most expensive, really? :-o *gasp!*
Delete(...I think I'll call my parents now to thank them for my education)
You're an Aoyama grad? *Gasp* indeed!
DeleteWhere did you learn English, anyway? You're native fluent!
I didn't realise until recently that Aoyama was Christian affiliated...
ReplyDeleteA good thing with the Sophia fee structure, is that for masters courses you pay by the semester not the course. I saved myself 25% by doing it three semesters not 4. A Sophia masters is not that different in price to an Australian masters. And an Australian or UK masters at international fee rates.... OUCH!
Sophia and Aoyama would both have a difficulty of largely female alumna who don't donate back as heavily (at least compared with Keio or Waseda or Meiji). Sophia also is very small and has limited economies of scale. To their credit they are quite socially active (albeit selectively). There's an option on the drink machine to buy student priced ones or regular priced ones with the balance going to a nominated charity (it's been something connected to Minami Sanriku I think since 2011).
In Aus, there is a well developed part of the tax scheme that student fees can be deferred until you start earning more than 40,000$ - indexed to the CPI. Not nearly as good as the good old days when it was free, but much better than a lot of places.
I didn't realize that Sophia and Aoyama had so many female students. Why? It's genteel? They want that "international" exposure?
DeleteMy alma mater Stellenbosch charges roughly ¥250 000 per annum for undergraduates and graduates (but it varies according to your major). That's just class fees; it excludes registration, various other admin fees and (another painful total) textbooks.
Non-white students can get financial help; white students should ideally have the foresight to be born to wealthy parents.
A master's in three semesters? Tough cookie, you! ^^
Sophia, because it's liberal arts and languages, tends to attract women. My understanding of Aoyama is that it's similar, but I just took a look at its home page and they have business, science and engineering, so my perception might be quite unfounded.
ReplyDeleteNo help for poor whites, because they're white? That sounds like like race based discrimination... but that I assume is an ugly topic fraught with historical complexities.
Took cookie or ketchi? ;) Had I been satisfied with the language learning options available, I'd have stretched it to 4, it was time well spent.
Aha. Gotcha about Sophia; still wonder about Aoyama.
DeleteBEE (black economic empowerment) is a powerful force in South Africa, and a reality we all have to cope with.
Took cookie? Ketchi? Wot dat? Who took de kookie from de kookie jar?
Sometimes a broken dream is just a stepping stone to an even better dream that you hadn't yet realized... Or so it seems in my case now, not that I felt this way then, and it would apply even less to the poor kids who have spent the past however many months in cram hell just to... fail the exam that could assure them a good future!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest career disappointment? When I didn't get a management board position due to the above-mentioned BEE rules in South Africa. I resigned my high-powered job, went freelance, returned to university, bumped into a certain Japanese character and ... here I am.
DeleteSo I realized a dream I never knew I had.
Man, I should start writing e-books! Fifty Shades of Red Vermilion! Yeee-ha!
Can I preorder on Amazon now, please?!
DeleteYou'll get a free copy! Heh. As a matter of fact, you'll probably feature in the book, rowing away into the sunset, with your helpless but happy Japanese catch tied to the bow of the kayak.
DeleteOh, and PS - I'm just going to skip the entire state of Japanese higher education discussion, I don't need to get myself riled up, the snorting ojiisan digging his elbow into my side is doing a good enough job of that...
ReplyDeleteSo I'll look at the gorgeous plum blossom and breathe deep calming breaths...
Yes but you're another expert! I mean, higher education expert, not snorting expert. :p
DeleteOK, we'll wait until you can be calmed down (or should that be even further riled up?) with umeshu! :D
MEXT should supply you a room with umeshu, invite you, Cecilia, and me, and we'd sort the education system out in a few litres! ;)
DeleteI am still regularly amazed by the inability of so many Japanese academics to write or even formulate an argument, but when you look at the way the graduate students are taught (lectures?!? in grad school!?!), the way undergrads aren't (not returning papers with comments or otherwise providing feedback), and that high school (and junior high) kids are only taught to memorize.... Well there you have your problem. Not that the Canadian system is perfect, but... How are you ever going to move forward and make new discoveries if all you are doing is memorizing?
Sigh...
Now back to the elbow digging into my side...
I was also somewhat (!) taken aback when I realized that master's degrees don't require original research or a complete thesis. Doctorates, on the other hand (at least at that institution where I talk to trees), follow international standards.
DeleteIt's so different. Where I come from, getting into university is relatively easy, but actually getting out with a degree? That requires regular class attendance, hard work, dozens of essays, tutorials, endless tests, regular exams ... and if you don't do it, that's it, you get kicked out. [Caveat: I'm talking about SA's academic universities. There are plenty of colleges, "technical universities" and "comprehensive universities" (that offer degrees as well as vocational diplomas) that aren't particularly demanding at all.]
Then again, and I must add this to be fair, Japan has several universities in the top 100 and South Africa has none. So ... perhaps ... this southern barbarian should shut up.
However, put me in a room with umeshu, you and Cecilia and I'll sort out not only Japan's problems, but punt kick the University of Stellenbosch straight into the top ten! Ha!
DeletePS: Punt kick? Oh, you Canadian hockey savage you. It's a kick where the (rugby) ball is dropped from the player's hands and kicked before the ball hits the ground.