Divs-poole

JAPANESE TERTIARY EDUCATION 

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senate. This was quite a surprise, not least of all to Iida-sensei himself, since he 

was only in his mid forties. There is a definite and deliberate attempt by the 

president with the tacit support of the board of trustees to infuse “new blood” into 

the organizational structure of the faculty senate, something the president often 

verbalizes during the after-hours inner circle meetings.  

The “president’s office” committee is the one that has been charged with 

researching and directing the university reform efforts, and hence this is the 

committee that has the most direct line to the president’s ear. It is an overarching 

committee that effectively crosscuts the many competitive fiefdoms and invisible 

walls between the various administrative departments and committees. Not 

surprisingly, this committee is made up of a mix of individuals—many are 

extremely capable multitasking administrators—all young, and all people that 

could be counted as, if not overt supporters of the president, certainly proponents 

of changing EUC for the better, i.e., “reformers.” These president’s office 

committee  members are extremely dedicated, meeting every Tuesday morning at 

9:00. At one point they gave a 30-minute report to the entire faculty senate, 

supported by a 50-page document entitled “The EUC Entrance Process: A Survey 

of Student Attitudes,” written by a woman member, Jinbō-sensei. Especially on 

this occasion, on the kyōjukai stage, the president was extravagant in his praise of 

the hard work exerted by this committee, and Professor Jinbō received a 

commendation in the form of a bonus. 

The school calendar is divided into two semesters at EUC. The first semester 

lasts from the beginning of April through July, and the second semester begins in 

mid September and finishes at the end of January, divided by a six-week summer 

holiday and a two-month spring break before the start of the new school year. On 

April 1

 

the professoriate holds its first faculty senate of the year in the morning. 

This is followed by a social get-together held at the dining hall in Central Square, 

the newest building on campus. The head of the personnel office acts as the MC as 

the new permanent faculty members and both permanent and “temp staff” 

administrators are introduced to the other EUC employees. Both the president and 

chairman give greeting addresses, which are followed by a ceremonial toast. The 

luncheon buffet and drink is catered by the same company that is contracted to 

provide the lunch and snack services at the university. It is a stand-up party and 

attendance, though obligatory, is only required for the first half-hour, after which 

faculty members begin to disperse. The board of trustees is normally referred to as 

the “management team”  of EUC. It consists of the chair, Mr. Kawaguchi, the 

president of the university and general faculty senate, President Asakubo, three 

other senior faculty members, the head administrator, and five other men, who are 

either prewar O.B. (“old boys,” graduates of EUC) or local retired businessmen—

except for President Asakubo and one faculty member, Professor Chino, all eleven 

members of the board are male senior citizens.  

Playing a supporting, but largely celebratory, role is the “advisory board” 

(hyōgikai) which is comprised of the entire board of trustees plus an additional four 

senior faculty members, two more senior administrative staff in addition to the 

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CHAPTER 1 

head administrator and thirteen others—O.B. and businesspeople. Of the 30 

members of the advisory board, only one is a woman. This is only partly explained 

by the fact that EUC was a boys’ school for the first 50 years of its existence. EUC 

is still a “man’s world,” as many of the women faculty members are acutely aware. 

Though the advisory board meets very infrequently, once a year at most, the 

symbolic value of being a member is not small. I was surprised when a senior 

faculty member, Professor Nakata, getting ready to retire in a couple of years, was 

not pleased when he was relieved from his position as committee chair. Nakata-

sensei does not enjoy administrative work, nor is he particularly adept at the 

politicking that comes with such a position as chair. Nevertheless, I learned later 

that if he remained chair for one more year he would be eligible for election to the 

advisory board, hence his disappointment when he was rotated out of the post. 

The chairman of the board of trustees is a retired Kirin Beer executive. Kirin 

Beer, the largest manufacturer of beer and one the largest beverage manufacturer in 

Japan after merging with Suntory, has employed many EUC graduates over the 

years. EUC events often feature Kirin beverages. The chairman of the board is also 

former graduate of EUC when it was still a high school before WWII. EUC was 

the first private higher school of commerce in Japan and had a rather elite status as 

a high school, sending many of its graduates to Tokyo Imperial University (now 

Tokyo University), Tokyo College of Commerce (now Hitotsubashi University), 

and other top-ranked universities. 

Besides the president, there are three other members of the faculty senate 

appointed to the board. Interestingly, even for Japan, neither of the faculty deans 

nor the department head of the liberal arts division are automatically members, 

effectively keeping them out of the loop. 

Keiretsu can roughly be translated as “department,” but this is somewhat 

misleading because certain keiretsu have only two faculty members. The keiretsu 

are organized around both academic disciplines as well as major courses of study. 

For example, although there is obviously no course of study (or “major” in North 

American terminology) in the humanities at EUC, a college of commerce, the 

“humanities department” in the liberal arts division consists of two historians, a 

philosopher, and a Japanese literature scholar. 

ADMINISTRATORS 

The administrative staff of EUC is made up of 45 full-time employees, and another 

10 “temp-staff” (contract workers). Much like at a Japanese company (Graham 

2003; Rohlen 1974), the staff is divided into departments (-bu) and sections (-ka), 

or  teams as they have recently been renamed. The University Administration 

Office is a department divided into three sections—personnel and publications, 

accounts, and grounds and properties—with a full-time staff of 11. It could be 

described as the brain of the university in terms of both location (closest in 

physical proximity to the offices of the chairman of the board and president) and 

importance. The head of the administrative staff, Mr. Mori, is a Tokyo University 

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