Japanese higher education is faced with a crisis. Women's higher educationcannot escape its fate. Because of the age-old discrimination and of handicapsand hurdles attached to women's education in Japan the situation might be moreserious and complicated.
Never in the history of Japanese education has the female population incolleges and universities including junior colleges been so great. In 1960 therewere 16, 448 girls graduating from 4-year colleges and 21, 041 graduating fromjunior colleges, while in 1970 48, 769 girls graduating from 4-year colleges and 99, 518 girls graduating from junior colleges. In 1970 one out of ten girls, interms of agegroup, attends college or university, while in case of boys nearlythree out of ten attend. Ten years ago 4 out of 100 girls attended colleges anduniversities and one out of 6 boys attended. It is quite ironical to meet with acrisis in the midst of prosperity. In spite of such phenomenal increase thegovernment has failed to meet the needs of the students. Junior colleges areoccupied by female students: almost 83% of the student population in juniorcolleges is women. On the other hand almost 82% of the student population in4-year colleges is men. At the same time 94% of female studnts are enrolled inprivately-supported junior colleges, because the government paid no attention towomen's higher education, leaving it almost entirely to private schools.
There seems to be a stereo-typed social image of women in Japan. Collegewomen are expected to work for a short period on a stop-gap job; they areexpected to quit the job at the time of marriage. In ten or fifteen years theyare expected to work as part-timers, because industry demands labor force verybadly. Since we are inclined to behave as expected, most college graduatesfollow this track. It seems that women's higher education is geared to meet theneeds of industry. It is serious for higher education to be subjugated byindustry.
As indicated in the statement issued by the Ministry of Education concerning the revision of high school curriculum, there is a resurgence of age-old education.peculiar to women. “Education for good-wife-and-wise-mother” has been emphasizedagain as a guideline for woman's education. In this post industrial societyin which women's roles become more complicated and varied, this kind of educationalpolicy formulated out of ignorance and negligence by the government willin all probability jeopadize not only women's higher education but the totalsociety.
