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【Why Students Stay Away 2】
Even Japan’s so-called elite universities struggle to attract students from around the world. Why is that? There are two major reasons. Reason #1: Weak Pathways to Employment and Long-Term Residency We covered this in the previous blog post. Reason #2: Low Wages GDP per capita is commonly used as an indicator of a country’s productivity. Broadly speaking, it’s also said to reflect the average annual income across all professions. After all, when per-person productivity is low, it naturally limits how much employers can pay in wages. Consider the following data: 2024 GDP per capita (global ranking):
Japan’s figure is now less than 40% of the US. Within Asia:
Japan now trails behind all of them. Most troubling of all, Japan is on a clear downward trajectory. At the height of its economic power in 1990:
Over the past 35 years, aside from Singapore’s dramatic rise, it feels less like other countries have surged ahead and more like Japan has fallen sharply behind. As a side note, Singapore’s remarkable growth coincides with the fact that roughly 47% of its population consists of immigrants--a point that aligns with the importance of inclusive experience. Even during it’s economic peak, Japan could hardly be described as fully “advanced” especially in terms of immigrant/refugee acceptance, or broader human rights and humanitarian standards. Now, after three and a half “lost decades” following the collapse of the economic bubble, even Japan’s once-reliable economic strength has declined to the point where we can no longer call it an “advanced country.” It’s only natural that students around the world hesitate to gather in a place where productivity and wages are in long-term decline. This dynamic is not unique to Japan. A similar pattern can be observed within the US. The Trump administration promotes the slogan “Make America Great Again” (MAGA), and its strongest support comes from conservative rural regions. Yet very few students around the world dream of moving to the US to work in rural agriculture, forestry, mining, or oil industries. Instead, most are drawn to overwhelmingly liberal urban centers--Silicon Valley, Wall Street, cutting-edge medical research, and the entertainment industry. Trump MAGA’s internal contradiction is clear: the movement that seeks to dismantle liberal openness undermines the very condition that makes America great. The more open a society is, the more it attracts students from around the world. The more closed it becomes, the more they stay away. The data below shows the number of Japanese and American universities ranked in the global top 50 across four major world university rankings. While we should treat these rankings as only a reference point, looking at all four provides a broad perspective. The four major rankings are:
(Note: There’s currently no globally influential university ranking published from Japan) Global Top 50 (number of schools):
These rankings reinforce the broader pattern: the US attracts students from around the world while Japan not so much. Japan struggles to attract students from abroad because of:
The consequences are cyclical, making it difficult to create an inclusive environment.
And so the cycle repeats. At the end of this vicious spiral lies persistent decline. In the next post, we’ll examine this issue further in light of Japan’s general election results a few weeks ago. Read Previous: 80 Years Later, Japan’s Big Problem (6)【Why Students Stay Away 1】 Read Theme: Inclusive Diversity Comments are closed.
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