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ネイチャーの記事（原文）
（1999.9.16 NATURE VOL401 P198）
日本語訳はこちらにあります。
NATURE VOL401 P198/16 SEPTEMBER 1999
Obuchi vows to push university reforms in Japan Tokyo
A plan by the Japanese government to transform the country's 99
national universities into semi-autonomous 'agencies' moved a
step closer to reality last week when Keizo Obuchi, the prime
minister, promised to enforce the reform if he is re-elected head
of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Obuchi stressed the importance of restructuring the universities
in a statement on education policy issued as part of his reelection
campaign.
The plans are part of a broader effort to increase administrative
efficiency by turning government-run organizations into semi-autonomous
bodies (see Nature 389, 897; 1997).
Koichi Kato, Obuchi's main opponent in the election and a supporter
of Japanese life-science research, also backs the agency plan
as a step towards privatizing the universities. Kato has been
critical of the current university system, particularly the restrictions
of civil-service law which prohibit researchers from taking part
in commercial activities.
Spurred on by this political pressure, the Ministry of Education,
Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho), which had opposed the
government's reforms, has announced that it intends to approve
the plan, provided that the universities are managed under a different
framework from other research institutes.
Monbusho officials say the pressure to reduce the number of civil
servants was now too strong for the ministry to keep resisting
the plan, as national universities have more than 125,000 staff,
a sizeable proportion of Japan's civil servants.
But Monbusho argues that the current agency bill, which sets targets
based on cost performance, could affect the standard of research
and education.
The ministry plans to ask that the bill be modified or that there
should be a separate bill for universities, so their priorities
would not be dictated by financial performance.
It insists that the evaluation of each agency be carried out by
an independent assessment body, which Monbusho plans to set up
next year (See Nature 400, 704; 1999). It wants to see performance
related targets selected by the education minister.
Monbusho's committee on university reform (see Nature 400, 703;
1999) will meet today (16 September) to finalize its proposals.
Monbusho is expected to announce its final decision at a general
meeting of the deans of the national universities on 20 September.
This schedule has been criticized by many as being too strongly
influenced by political factors. Hirokuni Ono, head of Tokyo University's
staff union, says Monbusho "shouldn't be rushing its decision
because of the LDP election."
"Japan spent a long time deciding whether to privatize its
railway and telecommunications sector," says Minoru Oda,
former director of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences
and a member of the Monbusho committee. "I don't see how
the government could decide the fate of the universities in such
a short space of time."
Asako Saegusa