“Leaderism” in Universities and a Case Study of Japan: An Analysis of Policy Documents on “President’s Leadership” in Postwar Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the "leaderism" theory and to present a new perspective on university management policy by tracing the historical development of "leaderism" in postwar Japan. In recent years, there has been much debate about the president's leadership, but here, we will focus on the discourse rather than the actual situation and analyze how the president's leadership has been situated. For this purpose, I will refer to the discussion of "leaderism" that has developed in Western Europe and analyze the history of postwar Japan. One result is that the three propositions of the university president's leadership that were established in the Sanhachi Report and the Yonroku Report continued thereafter. However, the context of that leadership has changed historically. This change implies the historical relativity of leadership.