In Japan, plummeting university enrollment forecasts what’s ahead for the U.S., Jon Marcus, April 18, 2023, The Hechinger Report As many of you may know, universities were seen as a very serious thing in Japan. Over 50% of Japanese have a college degree, significantly higher than the level in developed white nations. A university degree was almost seen as essential to success in Japan and virtually all Japanese parents strove for their children to get one. Great importance was placed on university education. But today, Japanese universities are beginning to experience an alarming decline in enrollment - fewer students. And many believe America may be next. What is happening in Japan could be a preview of what is going to happen in America in the next 15 years. A big part of this is due to the declining birth rates. There are simply fewer 18 year olds in Japan than there used to be, fewer students to go to university. As a consequence, many of these Japanese universities, which have huge sprawling campuses, are probably going to close. Several of the high tier universities have even grown desperate and are relaxing their entrance requirements. Whereas in 1991 Japanese universities only accepted 6 out of 10 applicants, today they accept 9 of 10. At least 11 universities in Japan shut down from 2000 to 2020, and there were 29 mergers, compared to only three in the 50 years before that. Keisen University and International Christian University, both semi-famous universities in Tokyo, will probably close soon. The situation is even more dire in many rural areas which have experienced an emptying out of the younger generation. A few prefectures (local governments) have even taken over the operation of private universities that were failing, because otherwise there would no longer be a university in that area. The rural areas have been struggling with an exodus of university educated young people into the big cities. The onset in the 1990s of "shoushikoureika", or the aging of Japan’s population, coincided with the start of a recession here that the Japanese call "the lost 30 years". Now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that under current demographic trends, the Japanese gross domestic product (GDP) will continue to decrease over the next 40 years. related threads: Why fewer Americans are going to college College Closings Signal Start of a Crisis in Higher Education
"When the economic bubble burst in the late 1980s, more than 40 American-style colleges that peppered Japan's educational landscape went under, now leaving only four, one with an ambitious foothold in Akita. Minnesota State University -- Akita was founded in May 1990 based on an agreement between Akita Prefecture and the U.S. state of Minnesota to foster global-minded people. MSU-A was also hit hard by the collapse of the bubble economy -- fewer than 100 students entered the school in 1993. But it has regained its strength and now accommodates 308 Japanese and 43 American students and a faculty of 60."article: Minnesota college living out bubble's burst in Akita, The Japan Times, October 6, 1997
