Abstract
The Bunkacho (The Agency for Cultural Affairs) publicly announced the new syllabus for educating Japanese language teachers on the base of its new philosophy and directions in March 2000. The old syllabus is characterized by an overemphasis on language whereas the new one has the feature of balancing pedagogies, linguistics and culture. The increase in breadth of the new syllabus has introduced a need in universities for teachers of Japanese teacher training courses with additional specialties. This article characterizes each university according to its ability to administer the new syllabus. A questionnaire was sent to all 89 universities that offer Japanese teacher training courses. Based upon the responses, universities were classified into four groups: The first group places an emphasis on teaching Japanese language and culture. The second group satisfies almost all requirements of the new syllabus. The third group satisfies the requirements of the old syllabus. The fourth group satisfies only a few requirements of the new syllabus. The conclusion is to suggest an increase in inter-university collaboration in order to meet the requirements of the new syllabus. This inter-university collaboration is described in further detail, including the use of Video On Demand for this purpose.
