Divs-poole

JAPANESE TERTIARY EDUCATION 

workings of the institution, however, it becomes obvious that for older faculty (late 

fifties and sixties) this is largely a case of bark rather than bite. Indeed, a few 

senior professors do tend to dominate the floor at meetings. At one faculty meeting 

that I transcribed, one professor dominated 70 percent of the discussion, even 

answering questions that the school president specifically addressed to other 

faculty members.  

However, it is evident that an informal organizational model circumvents the 

formal hierarchy. At the center, real faculty power is wielded by a few younger 

(thirties and forties) male members of the president’s inner circle. Their power 

derives from the influence they are able to exert on the president. President 

Asakubo, in turn, relies on them for strong support in the affairs of university 

governance and reform. The older professors he “buys off” with such positions as 

vice-president, board member, or committee chair—a calculated, pragmatically 

principled leadership, as opposed to one that is ideologically principled. There is 

also a hidden dynamic that President Asakubo is attempting to reinvent his identity, 

from that of a bad professor (warui sensei) to a good professor (ii sensei) and to 

accomplish this, one of his tactics is to overtly distance himself from the cronyism 

of the other older generation. Related to this is that the younger generation only 

knows him in this new mold of seriousness, so it is easier for him to work with 

them for change—he may even be slightly embarrassed around the other older 

professors  because they know too well the “old” Asakubo. He has accumulated 

little cultural capital among the older kyōju as compared with this “new blood.” 

Much of the push for reforming EUC, in terms of faculty development and 

curriculum change, comes not directly from the president himself, but rather often 

originates with his inner circle of influential faculty supporters. Though a strong 

internal leader, expert at navigating the maze of personalities and personal histories 

at EUC, Asakubo’s fairly conservative view of education, and his many years 

within this one institution, inhibits him in his ability to be creatively innovative or 

to look at EUC from an objective perspective.  

Changes are implemented top-down by the president, who uses his considerable 

political skills to co-opt the opposition into compliance, if not cooperation. One 

faculty member explained to me how professors Baba and Fuchida were appointed 

to the board of trustees so that during the faculty meeting they would be forced to 

sit alongside the president facing the rest of the senate body and therefore unable to 

challenge his leadership by disrupting the meeting with ornery questions or 

complaints. Their power within the board of trustees was muted as well. Past 

studies of organizations in Japan  often indicate that salarymen advanced in age 

and status within a company expect their underlings to bear the brunt of the 

overtime work as they themselves relax and enjoy their hard-earned status in the 

twilight of their careers, having gone through apprenticeship and worked their way 

up the organizational ranks. This is not the case at EUC, however. The older kyōju 

at EUC (fifties and sixties) openly resent Asakubo’s present tactic of assigning all 

important administrative tasks and decision-making influence to the younger kyōju 

(thirties and forties). The president himself is keenly aware of this resentment. This 

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CHAPTER 1 

correlates with a model of prioritizing administrative work discussed below. Kyōju 

following this model of “work” that prioritizes administration lose a crucial part of 

their professional identity if left out of committee posts and other administrative 

work, not least because such work enables them to remain “in the loop” of EUC 

knowledge-building and cultural capital accumulation. 

This is not to say that the president is a puppet. President Asakubo is extremely 

opinionated and exudes an almost brash sense of authority in meetings, both formal 

and informal. For example, in his office after work hours, the president enjoys 

talking about the latest developments among the faculty at EUC, usually an 

incident that focuses on some facet of administration. Invariably in these 

discussions he will contrast his disapproval of the “selfish” or “willful” behavior of 

older faculty members with the “selfless” and “serious” nature of younger faculty. 

He perceives in these younger male professors both a strong work ethic towards 

administrative and teaching tasks and sincerity in their service to the university, 

and thus is very open to their suggestions and recommendations. He considers 

these ideas very deliberately before implementing them in a stern manner, though 

entirely fairly and “by the rules” in his own estimation. The president has an 

observable concern with the appearance or form (katachi) of reform measures—

perceived transparency, accountability, clarity of his decisions—and is not 

extremely worried about the actual content, or even result, of the changes.  

An important part of the president’s discourse of reform is framed in his reliance 

on the younger generation of professors. He has backed up his words, for the most 

part, with his committee chair appointments—professors Genda and Hamaguchi—

to what he views as the key committees—the student affairs committee and 

academic affairs committee, respectively. Both are not only in their forties, but 

have not been part of the university faculty for very long.

 

Genda-sensei is a 

favorite of the president. Some say he is being groomed as the next president and is 

an extremely able administrator. Not only has the gakuchō informally suggested in 

a rather direct way that he supports Genda in becoming the next university 

president, but I learned from another faculty informant that past presidents have 

usually served as chairs on both the academic affairs and student affairs 

committees. These are considered two of the most important and influential 

committees at EUC, and faculty members who have chaired both make electable 

presidential candidates in the faculty senate. Genda was only at EUC for a year or 

two before he was appointed to the chair of the academic affairs committee and 

then, after two years in this important position, the gakuchō asked him to chair the 

student affairs committee. Hamaguchi-sensei, as well, was a surprise choice as the 

next chair of the academic affairs committee because he had only been at the 

school for a year and a half and had not yet proven himself as an administrator. His 

appointment, in particular, emphasizes the gakuchō’s “new blood doctrine.” It was 

obvious that this was a deliberate attempt to send a strong message to more senior 

members of the professoriate.  

Moreover, the gakuchō similarly hand-picked his candidate for dean of the 

management faculty, Professor Iida, who was subsequently voted in at the faculty 

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