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下 徹
北海道大学大学院理学研究科数学専攻
〒060-0810 札幌市北区北１０条西８丁目
TEL and FAX 011-706-3823
tujisita@math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp
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June 10th, 2001
Dear Colleague,
If you find the message below somewhat out of place, please accept my
apology for this intrusion on your time.
In 1999, the Japanese Government adopted a policy to make 99 national
universities into a new kind of public corporations, called
"Independent Administrative Corporations" (*1), which are very
similar to Quango(*2) in Britain.
Although many academic institution and societies, including
Mathematical Society of Japan, and individual researchers have
expressed strong misgivings about the proposed policy, the Government
has not changed its mind and intends to start implementing the new
system in a few years. In the new system, the universities are
forced,
because of the minus-sum game in obtaining the budgets, to compete
with each others, so that the cooperation of researchers among
different universities will be strongly discouraged. We fear also
that
international cooperation will decline, since universities will be
required to promise the number of patents they will obtain in five
years.
This is a very badly thought through policy presumably coming out due
to the impatience of bureaucracies confronting the current economical
difficulties of Japan.
If you share our apprehension after reading the attached
documents, please help us by sending messages of concern
to the Prime Minister Koizumi:
to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
voice@mext.go.jp,
and to Japan Association of National Universities
janu@iris.dti.ne.jp.
Please help us also by forwarding this letter to those who might
have concern over this issue.
Toru Tsujishita
Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Hokkaido Universeity
Kita 10 Nishi 8, Sapporo 060-0810 JAPAN
Tel & Fax +81-11-727-3705
tujisita@math.sci.hokudai.ac.jp
*1 The basic concepts are clearly described in the Final Report of
the Administrative Reform Council, December 3, 1997
Recently they are officially called Independent Administrative
Institutions (IAIs), e.g. in "More Transparent Administration"
pages prepared by the Government.
More informaion in
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents of enclosure
(1) A Call to Support the People's Network to Protect
the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities
(2) PROCLAMATION of the Board of directors of Japan Mathematical
Society
(A provisional unauthorized translation by Toru Tsujishita)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) A Call to Support the People's Network to Protect
the Autonomy of Japan's National Universities
Japan's national universities have a hundred year history, but at
present their academic freedom is under siege due to the government's
recent attempts to implement the "Independent Administration Agency"
policy. This policy will not only affect national, public and private
universities, but will have repercussions for all Japanese people. In
order to stop this unjust government policy we seek to build a
coalition that crosses professional lines, political parties, and
nationalities. In doing so, we call upon all those who value freedom
and care about free speech and academic autonomy.
What is this Independent Administration Agency?
This primary purpose of the proposed administrative system is to
remove and separate the functions of establishing educational
objectives, planning, and enforcement from the existing institutions
and place these prerogatives in the hands of the Tokyo government.
Consequently, the Minister of Education will determine and define
what
ought to be the universities' "intermediary objectives." It will then
be incumbent on the Independent Administration Agency to submit a
plan
to achieve these goals over a period of time. These plans will then
be
subject to the Minister's approval and the universities will be
evaluated on their performance in achieving the prescribed plans.
This
policy will furthermore give the Minister the power to control the
funding of a university and the right to shut it down.
Past Opposition by the Ministry of Education
Initially, the Ministry of Education opposed the Independent
Administration Agency policy; however, yielding to pressure, two
years
ago, the Ministry of Education changed its stance and decided to
approve it. The Association of National Universities that is supposed
to be responsible for protecting the autonomy and academic freedom of
its universities is also taking a questionable stance. In response to
these recent developments, the Association has apparently
participated
in discussions about a survey that was designed by the Ministry of
Education's Department of Sciences to further the implementation of
this policy change. In contrast to its publicly stated opposition to
the policy, such activities by the Association reveal a very
ambiguous
stance. Both of these bodies have turned their backs on the people by
ignoring requests to clarify their responsibilities in this
matter.
The Consequences of this Independent Administration Agency
Despite the misleading use of the term "independent," the
implementation of this administrative system will bring about the
exact opposite, by placing all national universities under the direct
management and control of the government. This is a clear violation
of
the twenty-third clause of the Constitution which guarantees the
autonomy of universities to protect their academic freedom. It is
also
a clear violation of the tenth clause of the Fundamental Education
Law
that forbids the "improper control" of education.
This policy will significantly influence university research and
education. The content of education will be uniformly standardized
and
there is a risk that research will be pursued only for the purpose of
obtaining short term results. For example, at present, eight of
Japan's national universities are ranked among the top ten in the
world in terms of producing the highest number of research papers in
the field of chemistry. Japan's research universities currently play
an important role internationally, but under the new system such a
standard will be difficult to maintain.
But above all, by subjecting universities to the threat of being shut
down, the vital function of the university to speak out on matters of
concern for the society will be lost. What will become of Japan if we
cannot protect the freedom of speech and academic freedom? It was
only
a few decades ago that many people in Japan and in countries nearby
experienced terrible suffering as a result of the war caused by our
own government.
A Concern that Extends beyond National Universities
The tuition increase for national universities will threaten equal
access to education. By increasing the numbers of incoming students
at
public universities based on management considerations, the quality
of
education is at risk. Increasing the number of students at public
universities will, in turn, decrease the number of students who pay
to
attend private universities that, already, are not as financially
stable as public universities.
The Independent Administration Agency will not only impact national
universities, but also will aim to regulate all public universities.
If national universities lose their freedom this will surely have
repercussions for private universities.
Calling on the People to Voice their Will to
Expand the Freedom of Universities
We must aim towards reforming the universities by abolishing the
various forms of bureaucratic regulation and expanding the freedoms
and rights of the universities and those who work within them. It is
also imperative to expand the rights of university students. By doing
so, we aim to fulfill the 1998 UNESCO Declaration of Higher Education
that calls for the independence of universities to enable them to
perform their vital role as critical forces in society*. In order to
do so, the people must voice their opinions to preserve the academic
freedom of the national universities.
Nothing is determined yet
On several occasions the mass media have reported that this
Independent Administration Agency is already an established fact. But
this matter has not even begun to be discussed in the Diet, and by
stating that it is a "decided actuality" ignores the fundamental
legal
procedures of our nation.
If the people raise their voices and take action, we can stop this
destruction of our national universities.
We ask all of you to join with us in this network to protect the
people's universities.
May 1, 2001
Petition of Support
for the People's Network to Protect the Autonomy
of Japan's National Universities
Name:
affiliation and/or title:
Address:
Post code:
Tel/Fax no:
e-mail:
I support the People's Network and consent for my name to
appear on the website or on printed materials.
(Please fill in the above form and send it to the executive secretary
via Email, fax or conventional mail.)
People's Network to Protect the Autonomy of Japan's National
Universities
chairperson : YAMAZUMI Masami, former president of the Tokyo Metropolitan
University
executive secretary : TOYOSHIMA Kouichi, Prof. of Physics, Univ. of
Saga
Address:
Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Saga
1 Honjo-machi, Saga, 840-8502 Japan
Email: toyo@cc.saga-u.ac.jp
phone/fax +81-952-28-8845
temporary website:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) PROCLAMATION of the Board of directors of Japan Mathematical
Society
(A provisional unauthorized translation by Toru Tsujishita)
Do the system of higher education and academic research in Japan
improve by making national universities into corporations by the
common
law of Independent Administrative Corporation?
Director of Japan Mathematical Society
Yukio MATSUMOTO
1st, February, 2000
Recently the Japanese government plans to make the national
universities into Dokuritsu Gyousei Houjin (Independent
Administrative
Corporation) and the rights and wrongs of the plan are widely
discussed. Although it concerns itself mainly with the promotion of
research activity of mathematics, the Japan Mathematical Society
express its opinion on this problem, because it is deeply connected
with the future of academic research in Japan and there are many
members doing research and education on mathematics in national
universities.
1．Making universities into corporation based on the Common Law of the
Independent Administrative Corporation conflicts with the academic
freedom.
The government is now considering the plan to make national
universities into corporation based on the Common Law of Independent
Administrative Corporation, but the impetus came not from the
motivation to overcome the various difficulties concerning education
and research but from the point of view of the administrative and
financial reform.
It is said that Independent Administrative Corporation university has
some merits. Firstly they have more freedom in organization,
administration, and finance etc. and secondly the financial support
is promised by the government in the form of subsidy for
management.
However, both the autonomy and financial support are guaranteed to
the
universities only as corporations to which the government farm out
projects. In fact a university must make detailed plans to carry out
the five years project assigned by the government and, after that
period, the government evaluate its activity and determine the next
five years project to be farmed out to it, and, in case the
evaluation
is, the government even abolish it. This is not in harmony with the
mission of universities, namely autonomous activity of research and
education, and conflicts with the academic freedom guaranteed by the
constitution. The merits of the plan mentioned above do not deserve
consideration in view of the high cost of destruction of the the
academic freedom, which has so much fundamental importance.
2. Pursuit of administrative efficiency by five years projects is not
suitable for research activity in universities, especially in
fundamental research.
The management of Independent Administrative Corporations is based on
the plan they make according to the three to five years projects
farmed out by the government. But many researches in universities are
not confined to the time span of five years and that there have been
no epoch-making original contributions which are obtained by research
following definite projects. Especially in the domain of fundamental
researches such as mathematics, it is often the case that even for
the
specialists it takes many years for the epoch-making results to be
realized and usually it is nearly impossible to have some outlook
which kind of profits the result will bring to the society.
Furthermore, it is obvious that the pursuit of efficiency, which is
one of the main points of five years projects, is not consistent with
research and education. It is said sometimes that the efficiency is
not economic one but the one in view of its own aim. However, in such
short periods as five years it is difficult to judge which is good.
Moreover, even this interpretation of efficiency remains at present
only a wishful thinking. The pessimism about the nature of efficiency
imposed to the university is rather natural since the Independent
Administrative Corporation is designed for the reform of
administration and finance of the government. It is not right to move
the activity of education and research, which are not measured by
the concept of efficiency, whatever it might be, to the environment
under the Independent Administrative Corporation, whose mission is
exactly the efficiency. Needless to say, there would produced not
genuinely deep results by the research dominated by the projects
which
change every five years.
3. The Independent Administrative Corporation system which deprives
of
the freedom of research puts barrier to original researches.
Recently it is stressed that it is the originality that is most
needed
both for the industrial community and for the academic community. But
the freedom of research is absolutely necessary for original ideas to
come to existence. This is the reason why the academic freedom is so
badly needed.
By the way, it is sometimes claimed that Japanese researchers have
little originality, which is only an ungrounded prejudice. In fact,
in
many domains of research, Japanese contribution is at the top level
from the worldwide standard and the original ideas by Japanese
scholars
play important roles for the academic development.
4. The mathematics researches, as a typical domain of fundamental
science, give evidence to the above assertion.
Mathematics is the fundamental language for the science and
technology. She has been assimilating rich ideas from other
disciplines including human and social sciences and has developed as
the
universal language of science doing modeling and abstraction.
On the other hand, many domain of mathematics has developed
autonomously and brought mathematics fertilization, whose
significance
is not confined to mathematics as is proved by many historical
examples. To describe the theory of general relativity, Einstein used
the language of Riemannian geometry, but Riemann did not intend to
prepare language for physics but only arrived at it by thinking
deeply
about the space and the distance. The history shows that every deep
mathematical research has prominent applications to other disciplines
such as physics.
Usually, however, many years elapses before such applications are
found. In the above example, it is half century after Riemann laid
down his theory that Einstein applied it to his theory.
We are proud of prominent contributions of Japanese mathematicians.
There are many mathematical theory born in Japan and known all over
the world, , such as the class field theory by Teiji Takagi, the
theory of functions of several complex variables by Kiyoshi Oka,
algebraic analysis by Mikio Sato, Mori theory in algebraic geometry,
theory of stochastic differential equations by Kiyoshi Ito, etc..
The
freedom of research and education in national universities in Japan
has definitely positive effect on these.
5. We will reform the universities and education by ourselves with
enthusiasm.
It is true that there are various problems in the system of
researches
and education in universities and we need radical reform including
the
reform of organization and institution. However we do not think that
the current plan of making national universities in to Independent
Administrative Corporation will solve these problems and realize the
reform of universities which brings about the development of the
academic culture of Japan.
Mathematics is getting more and more important not only for its own
sake but also as the language and instruments by the scientific and
technological development and accordingly the mathematical education
in the universities will have more importance proportionally. The
mathematical education in elementary and middle education has the
object, not only the computing ability of pupils, but also cultivate
their thinking ability to have insight on the essence of the world.
It
is the most appropriate subject to grow the high intellect of pupils,
who will not be flawed by numerical data without solid ground.
At the same time, many problems in the current education in Japan has
salient features in mathematics education and urgent action is needed
to remedy them. We, who are engaged in education of mathematics, are
made up our minds to recognize the importance and responsibility of
our mission originating the importance of mathematics and the JMS are
doing various activities in each universities
We are aware of the insufficiency of the outcome of the above
efforts
and are open to criticism. The reform, however, must at least be in
harmony with the efforts of the university staffs actively engaged in
teaching.
6. We demand the government, the ministry of education, to work out
policy based on the crucial points of research and education with
long
term vision.
The Japan Mathematical Society, consisting chiefly of researchers and
educators of mathematics, has expressed, in many occasions, its
opinions on other educational reforms, especially on the elementary
and middle education. We have repeatedly warned that the educational
reforms has lowered the levels of academic attainment and has the
danger to deprive the young people of the ability to think, since the
real motivation behind the reforms were alien to education and the
education system has been greatly distorted for the real motivation
to
be glossed over. We are afraid that the plan of the government
making
national universities into corporation based on Independent
Administrative Corporation law have the same hidden motivation
similar
to the above one.
We demand the Ministry of Education will work out the policy of
university reform, not yielding to the pressure of those alien to
education and academic world, but pondering deeply on the ideal of
education and research and taking consideration the social roles the
university should play in the 21th
century.
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