The Formulation of Professional and Vocational

Universities: Background and Challenges of a New

Institutional Type in Japan

Motohisa Kaneko

In 2017, new types of educational institutions known as “professional and vocational

universities” and “professional and vocational junior colleges” were formulated in Japan. The
relationship between universities and specialized “professional or vocational education” has
been a complex one, with universities expected to do more than merely prepare students for
professional careers, and with certain social-hierarchical implications. With this reform to
the system, senmon gakko (specialized institutions of higher education training students in
specific vocations, referred to in this article as “professional training colleges”), created as an
exceptional measure within the single-track postwar Japanese educational system, can in many
ways be said to have mobilized their political clout to gain increased legitimacy and boost
their competitiveness with universities. The reform occurred in the context of widespread
criticism of the conventional university system within society. At the same time, it has enabled
existing universities to add “professional and vocational courses” to their curricula. In 21st-
century society, the structure of industry has become more diverse and dynamic, demand for
goods, information, and services has expanded, and correspondingly the importance of what
one might call “fluid professions” has grown. It is highly significant that these structural
changes are being addressed through higher education. In that sense, I believe it is vital that we
examine the new possibilities this reform opens up, including the framework of conventional
universities.
I. Universities and professional and vocational education
II. The political context of professional and vocational universities
III. Issues facing professional and vocational universities and professional and vocational programs
IV. Conclusion

“Professional and vocational universities” and “professional and vocational junior colleges” constitute
a new framework focusing on practical professional education within the university system. What does
this framework’s establishment mean for higher education in Japan? This article first reviews the status of
professional and vocational education within higher education in general, from the standpoint of international
comparison (I), then reviews the background and the institutional framework of the “professional and
vocational universities” established through the new educational reform (II), and finally discusses
contemporary social issues surrounding professional and vocational education at universities (III).

30 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

I. Universities and professional and vocational education
First, let us quickly review relationships between universities and professional and vocational education
from a broad perspective.

1. Universities and professional and vocational education

Looking at relationships between higher education and occupation historically and internationally, we can
roughly divide them into two patterns, the European and the American.
The roots of the university lie in medieval Europe, where universities were established to train students in
the three classical specialized professions of theology, medicine, and law. Later, in the 18th century, with the
advancement of the natural sciences, the development of knowledge was linked with the growth of various
new industries. However, in the early 19th century the Humboldt University of Berlin rejected seemingly
utilitarian fields of scholarship outside of classical theology, law and medicine, and created the university
model of academic autonomy or learning for its own sake.
This corresponds to the social class structure of Europe. The educational system was divided into a
university track, mainly the province of the upper class, and a non-university track, i.e. primary education,
for the middle and lower classes. Later, secondary education, in the form of institutions of professional and
vocational education, was gradually added to the latter. The resulting overall educational framework remained
double-track, with professional and vocational education being the final stage for those not advancing to
university, although some universities came to encompass more practical disciplines.
After World War II, however, the importance of scientific and technical human resources was emphasized,
and a system of post-secondary education was created to follow the secondary stage of the non-university
track. This trend was especially pronounced in the 1960s and 1970s, when British polytechnics, German
Fachhochschule (universities of applied sciences), French STS (advanced technical courses) and IUT
(university institutes of technology), and other professional and vocational institutions at the higher-education
level were created.
In the United States, during the colonial era universities were primarily focused on liberal arts as they
related to the training of priests and ministers, but the state university system was established in response to
the advent of industrial development in the late 19th century, and was regarded as having a crucial mission to
train human resources for industrial development, in fields such as engineering and agriculture. In this sense,
the development of modern occupations went hand in hand with that of universities.
After the Second World War, with robust economic growth, demand for personnel in these modern
occupations further expanded. The number of two-year community colleges offering professional and
vocational education increased, and a system was established for students at these colleges seeking further
education to transfer to four-year universities. The difference from Europe is that courses in academic
discipline and professional and vocational courses coexisted within the broadly defined university system.
Based on the United States’ intrinsic philosophy of equal social opportunity, it was important to give students
as wide a range of choices as possible.
In the late 1950s and 1960s, the percentage of students advancing to higher education skyrocketed, in a
phenomenon described as the “massification” of higher education. There are various ways of thinking about
what catalyzed this, but one indisputable point is that the job market for occupations requiring a university
degree did not expand rapidly, and the already established correlation between higher education and modern
occupations alone cannot explain the surge in enrollment. Regarding this, Galbraith (1971) states that the
dramatic expansion of companies’ management structures accompanying economic development, with a
corresponding growth in the population of white-collar workers in these management positions, merely
happened to coincide with a rise in the number of university graduates. In any case, the massification of higher
education progressed in tandem with expansion of the industrial structure and of corporate organizations in

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 31

particular.

2. Characteristics of Japan’s educational system

How does Japan compare to these two overseas models?
From the Meiji Era (1868–1912) until World War II, in Japan’s education system a European double-
track structure was in place at levels above primary education. On the one hand there was a track leading to
junior high school, high school, and university (all of which had their systems changed following the war, and
today are referred to as kyusei or “under the old system”), and on the other, for those completing mandatory,
i.e. primary education and wishing to go on to secondary education, there were vocational schools, normal
schools (what we know today as teachers’ colleges or teacher-training colleges), and vocational colleges that
were virtually on a par with institutions of higher education (Amano 1993).
Here, the difference from Europe is that universities under the old system contained faculties in specialized
practical disciplines such as engineering, agriculture, and commerce. In this we can see the influence of both
the French Grandes Écoles and the American university system.
After World War II, Japanese education shifted to a single-track system modeled on the United States. As a
part of this, a new university system was established, and many of the former vocational schools and colleges
became universities under the new system. However, this shift entailed differences from the American system.
One is that Japan’s (generally two-year) junior colleges, while similar to American community colleges,
depend mostly on tuition fees rather than being publicly funded, due to financial constraints, and thus do not
serve as preparatory institutions for students seeking to transfer to four-year universities.
Meanwhile, there were strong demands for resurrection of institutions equivalent to the prewar short-
term professional higher education institutions, especially from the industrial sector. To meet these demands,
“vocational colleges” or “vocational universities” were conceived, but in the end, the system of “colleges of
technology” was established in 1961. These were five-year institutions that students could enter following
junior high school graduation, offering the equivalent of a three-year high school education and a two-year
higher education in one place. Currently, only about 10,000 students enroll in these, less than 1% of the coeval
population.
On the other hand, the four-year university enrollment rate surged in the 1960s. During this decade it
stood at around 10%, but by the mid-1970s it was well above 30%. This constituted the “massification of
higher education” in Japan, and was largely driven by two factors. One was the growth in household incomes
accompanying rapid economic development, providing many high school students who would previously
have given up on university for financial reasons with the opportunity to enroll. The other was demand for
personnel for modern occupations that were expanding along with economic growth, but these occupations
alone were insufficient to absorb the growing number of graduates. However, industrial growth resulted in
an increase in white-collar workers in corporate management organizations, and these jobs tended to go to
university graduates.
At the same time, the percentage of university graduates able to secure employment began falling steeply
around the end of the 1960s, and as the number of students skyrocketed, the quality of Japanese university
education declined. This led, by the mid-1970s, to a more restrained tone in higher education policy.
Specifically, the Factory Location Act restricted new construction of various types of buildings in major urban
areas, including universities, while subsidies for private universities’ operating expenses were established,
enabling recipient institutions to curtail exceeding enrollment to a certain degree. These measures helped
to limit the number of four-year university students, while a system of senshu gakko (“specialized training
colleges”) was established to accommodate those seeking higher education but unable to enter four-year
universities. In particular, specialized training colleges offering post-secondary courses, i.e. senmon gakko or
“professional training colleges,” became the primary sources of post-secondary professional and vocational
education. However, adherence to the principle of a single-track educational system put these institutions in

32 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

an ambiguous position, in that senshu gakko (specialized training colleges), while termed gakko (schools) in
Japanese, did not qualify as “Article 1 schools,”1 i.e. schools prescribed in Article 1 of the School Education
Act.
In terms of numbers, the professional training college system showed a considerable expansion, with
enrollment growing to nearly 20% of the age-18 population. However, during the same period the number of
students aspiring to enter four-year universities continued to accelerate, and entrance examinations became
more fiercely competitive. This resulted in a generally recognized paradigm of students choosing professional
and vocational education, i.e. enrolling at professional training colleges, because they were unable to enter
four-year universities due to academic performance or financial constraints. In this sense, in postwar Japan,
professional and vocational education has been strongly stigmatized in terms of social status and academic
ability.
It was made clear that professional and vocational education was not simply correlated with supply and
demand in industry and the job market, but was also significantly influenced by socioeconomic hierarchies,
and by political developments unfolding within the context of these hierarchies.

II. The political context of professional and vocational universities

An effort to redefine professional training colleges as a type of higher education institution emerged in the
above-described context.

1. Moves toward creation of “professional and vocational universities”

Efforts to have professional training college designated as so-called “Article 1 schools,” and further, to
make them into an educational system on a par with four-year universities, were ongoing for many years
(Kobayashi 2016). They regained momentum in the late 2000s, and in January 2011 the Central Council for
Education issued a statement (“The future of practical professional education within the school system”)
recommending development of “a new educational framework specifically tailored to vocational and practical
education.” In response, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in
October 2013 launched discussions in “the Expert Panel on Establishment of Higher Educational Institutions
Providing Professional and Vocational Education.”
Meanwhile, the fifth (July 2014) and sixth (March 2015) set of recommendations from the government’s
Education Rebuilding Implementation Council also emphasized the importance of practical professional
education. Eventually, the Central Council for Education’s Special Committee on Inauguration of Higher
Educational Institutions Providing Professional and Vocational Education issued a “Progress Report on
institutionalization of a new type of higher educational institution for fostering high-quality professionals
able to cope with society’s demand for human resources arising from social and economic changes” (March
2016). Based on this, the School Education Act was amended in May 2017 and clear provisions were made
for the “professional and vocational university” and “professional and vocational junior college” in legislative
documents. Universities and colleges fitting the new definitions are scheduled for launch in April 2019.
The objectives of establishment of the professional and vocational university system are outlined in
the reports and minutes of the above-mentioned councils. Having participated in some of these discussions
myself, I believe that the factors propelling this systemic reform can be roughly divided into three categories.

2. Momentum for change

The first was demand from conventional professional training colleges. As described earlier, a direct
cause of the professional training college system’s establishment was the necessity of filling the gap between
higher education supply and demand resulting from curtailment of four-year university admissions in 1975.
At the time this systemic change was strongly criticized as undermining the postwar principle of a single-track

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 33

educational system. In actuality these “professional training colleges” were, or emerged from, what had thus
far been called “miscellaneous schools,” many of which were small-scale and operated by single individuals.
For this reason, it was predicted that problems would arise if “professional training colleges” were designated
as schools under Article 1 of the School Education Act. Accordingly they were not added to Article 1, and their
oversight, including permission to open new institutions, was delegated to prefectural governments. While
the framework for professional training colleges was legally recognized, their status was ambiguous in that
strictly speaking they were not part of the public education system. This put them at the disadvantage of being
ineligible for subsidies like those received by private educational institutions. In this regard, professional
training colleges had requested from the start that they be clearly defined part of the public education system.
In fact, since the system was established, enrollment in professional training colleges had dramatically
increased. In 1980, the number of students entering professional training colleges was 190,000, but this
had risen to 360,000 by the beginning of the 1990s. In 2005, the percentage of the 18-year-old population
advancing to professional training colleges (new high school graduates only) reached 17%. However,
afterward the number of students admitted gradually declined to about 270,000 in 2017, nearly 30% fewer
than at its peak. This reflected not only the shrinking of the age-18 population, but also a progressive
gravitation toward four-year universities among the student population who would previously have entered
professional training colleges.
Under these circumstances, it is easy to imagine that from the viewpoint of professional training colleges,
curtailing this decline in demand was a significant issue. In 2013, a system was established in which professional
training colleges meeting certain conditions could be approved by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology as offering “professional post-secondary courses.” However, there remained the
more fundamental task of shedding the colleges’ inferior status, compared with four-year universities, as
higher education destinations for high school graduates. The challenge was to acquire equivalence with
four-year universities in terms of authorization to provide students with academic credentials, specifically
bachelor’s degrees. In this regard, the question becomes whether to convert professional training colleges to
conventional universities, or to create a new type of school. For some professional training colleges, the latter
option was preferable, and this motivated them to step up efforts to influence the administration and ruling
party.
Secondly, looking at broader social trends, criticism of the conventional universities was also a significant
factor. The four-year university enrollment rate in Japan began rising again in the early 1990s, by the
2010s reaching the 50% level; a state one might call “universalization.” However, there was widespread
criticism that university enrollment ratio of Japan was excessively high. Although politicians made few clear
pronouncements because of being criticized themselves for criticizing universities, the widespread sentiment
against extremely high university enrollment ratio can be seen in remarks, of which Minister of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Makiko Tanaka’s (2012) is a typical example.
There was also a considerable amount of unspoken criticism and dissatisfactions with conventional
universities as socially exclusive and self-righteous. Although this sometimes took the form of general
dissatisfaction with university administration and management, there were also particularly strong critiques
of educational content as too biased toward academics. Regarding the above-mentioned rise in the university
enrollment rate, it was also pointed out that students need more university education that develops skills
leading to employment. Also influential was the argument (Toyama 2014) that only a minority of universities
need to achieve international academic standards, and the rest should focus on imparting general, practically
applicable knowledge.
However, business organizations have not always adopted a clear stance toward these arguments.
In general, business leaders appear to support increased practicality in university education, but do not
necessarily say that they will hire graduates of new types of institutions other than conventional universities,
if such institutions can be formed.

34 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

 The third factor was a backlash against a prevailing social attitude of contempt toward professional and
vocational education. As described earlier, historically speaking, the development of universities has been
closely intertwined with scholarly disciplines, while by contrast professional and vocational education has
taken the form of secondary education for young people unable to get on the university track. As a result, there
has undeniably been a widespread implicit bias in society against professional and vocational education as
offering relatively inferior educational opportunities.
Meanwhile, it is no wonder that there were also widespread dissenting opinions that professional and
vocational education should be recognized for its unique value within the educational system. These opinions
were certainly not uncommon among researchers studying higher education administration or professional
and vocational education.
On the other hand, there were certainly those skeptical about creating professional and vocational
universities as a new type of institution. The fundamental issue is the maintenance of the single-track model.
A wide range of professional and vocational education is already carried out at conventional universities,
and professional and vocational education could be greatly advanced through enhancing flexibility to
conventional universities’ institutional framework. Furthermore, a comparative survey of developed countries
(National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education, 2016) showed
that while double-tracking at the higher education level took place in Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, the trend
has been rather toward incorporation multiple tracks or fields into a single university system since the start of
the 21st century.
In this sense, I believe that the Central Council for Education’s deciding that a new type (professional
and vocational universities) was necessary was not exactly a logical conclusion to its discussions. However,
the reform already been proposed in the Education Rebuilding Implementation Council, and at that stage,
the establishment of professional and vocational universities would have been politically difficult to reverse.
It is also important to keep in mind that setting up “professional and vocational programs,” courses
equivalent to professional and vocational university courses, at conventional universities and junior colleges
has been approved through the discussion process. This has the potential to catalyze significant changes at
existing universities as well.

3. Specific design of the project

How do professional and vocational universities specifically differ from conventional universities?
To define them specifically, “standards for establishment of professional and vocational universities” and
“standards for establishment of professional and vocational junior colleges” will be enacted, but at the time
of this writing, they have not been finalized. Based on the materials provided for public comments, however,
their characteristics can be summarized with the following three points.
First, from the standpoint of subjects (courses), requirements for graduation are prescribed in terms of
credits (as opposed to time, in the case of professional training colleges), and the 124 credits required is the
same number as that of normal universities. However, unlike ordinary universities, students are required to
obtain 40 or more credits related to experiments, practical training or practical skills. Regarding subjects,
four categories are to be established: (1) basic subjects, (2) specialized professional subjects, (3) advanced
subjects, and (4) integrated subjects.
Secondly, regarding educational conditions such as admission capacity, facilities, faculty and so forth,
as a general rule they conform to ordinary standards for establishment of universities, such as the number
of teachers required for each specialized field. Differences are that in principle class sizes are required to
be no larger than 40 people, and that in relevant notifications, methods for “provisional practical exercises”
are specified. Rules regarding teachers include that people working in specialized professions outside the
university can be admitted as full-time teachers, and that 40% or more of full-time teachers must have five or
more years of experience in their fields of specialization, and have high levels of practical proficiency.

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 35

 The third characteristic concerns governance and mechanisms of quality assurance. Because professional
and vocational universities are established within the scope of the School Education Act, unlike professional
training colleges, school corporations must be established under the provisions of the Private Schools Act,
and they must be operated and managed accordingly. Also a Curricular Liaison Council must be established
to maintain partnerships with the industrial and academic communities. Council participants are to include
representatives such as university teachers and staff, members of industry associations related to specialized
professional fields, local government officials and so on. Quality assurance is a crucial task, and it is likely
that the new type of institutions will be subject to evaluation and accreditation procedures as with ordinary
universities, but its format has yet to be specified.

III. Issues facing professional and vocational universities and professional and vocational
programs
As we have seen, the framework for professional and vocational universities has almost solidified.
However, we cannot view this as simply the outcome of political factors. As discussed above, there is also
the issue of establishment of professional and vocational courses (programs) at ordinary universities or junior
colleges, and a need to consider what significance these reforms have for Japanese higher education, and what
sorts of problems may lie on the horizon.

1. Demand
An interesting aspect of discussions on the establishment of professional and vocational universities is
that it was never clearly stated what kind of “specialized professions” the system envisions. Indeed, even the
final report of the review committee places no clear numerical values on the demand for graduates of these
institutions, or the distribution of students’ areas of specialization. Several examples of fields were given
during the discussions, but their scales were not clarified, nor were the reasons they could not be addressed
within the conventional university system. Thus, in the standards for establishment of professional and
vocational universities, classifications of special fields are almost the same as those of existing universities.
On the other hand, however, this does not indicate that there are no points to consider with regard to
the relationship between conventional university education and specific occupations. As described earlier,
universities were originally intended to train students in the classical specialized professions, and since the
19th century preparation for modern occupations has also been an important objective of university education.
However, the postwar massification of university education occurred in tandem with expansion of corporate
organizations. Knowledge and skills related to duties were incorporated into training within corporate
organizations, and direct relationships between university education and career became highly unclear.
The results of a survey on university graduates (Figure 1) show that the majority are hired at enterprises
in the categories of “administrative and sales positions,” “technical positions,” and “specialized professional
positions.” “Administrative and sales positions” account for about 60%, “technical positions” about 30%,
and “specialized professional positions” no more than 10%. In terms of distribution of this last category by
university major (Figure 1), the scope of “specialized professions” is limited to health-related, psychological
and social, education and the like.
On the other hand, examination of the distribution of graduates of four-year universities by industry
reveals that the employment structure of university graduates has changed dramatically since 1990. Until the
1990s, the manufacturing industry led the job market, but commerce and finance have expanded thereafter,
and service industries have rapidly increased in the 21st century (Figure 2).
These figures show that almost 40% of graduates are employed in the service sector, and when the
approximately 30% in commerce and finance are added, this accounts for 70% of university graduates. In
these sectors, specific job contents appear to be growing highly varied.

36 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

 So, what types of skills are specifically in demand? A graduate of a professional training college usually
gains employment through having their knowledge and ability in specific skill areas recognized. From
that perspective, I examined the distribution of specializations of students enrolled at professional training
colleges (Figure 3). Professional training college graduates account for less than 20% of new graduates
employed (i.e. of their peer group), but the survey findings show that half of them are in occupations requiring
public licenses such as health care and welfare. This is not particularly different from the circumstances of
four-year university or junior college graduates. However, the other half is employed in a diverse range of
fields, including industrial and commercial ones.
To investigate this in greater depth, I examined the distribution of professional training college students
by more finely subdivided college subjects (Table 1). The results clearly show that these subjects span a very
diverse field. In terms of the industry classifications mentioned above, most can be considered to belong
to the service industry, but their actual job contents are quite diverse and do not necessarily correspond to
conventional industrial or occupational classifications. We should recognize that in a wide variety of fields,
employees are being recruited to perform specific duties.
People hired to perform such diverse duties appear to function in organizations different from ordinary
university graduates. They also have a high degree of fluidity outside the scope of specific companies. Here,
let us call their fields “fluid professions.” The professional and vocational universities to be established, as
well as professional and vocational programs at conventional universities, are supposed to correspond to these
areas.

(%)

6 7 5 5 4 4
10 9 8 11 11 8 8 10 3
3 4 5 7 13
5 6 7 12
21
25 35 40
6 39 46 47

44
11
29 49 72
8 19

82 81 79
71
31
51
53 45
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41 40 39
31
20 18
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Administrative and sales professions Technical professions Specialized professions Other

Source: The author, 2013, 148.

Figure  1.  Sectors in which employees are hired, by field of university major

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 37

 From this perspective, the employment tracks of higher education graduates can be divided into three
conventional categories: (1) white-collar administrative and sales positions, for which duties are delegated
by enterprises, (2) technical positions for which duties are delegated within the framework of enterprises,
(3) specialized professions requiring a university degree, many of which also require licenses and are
systematically divided by academic field. To these we can add a fourth, (4) “fluid professions” encompassing
a highly diverse range of specific duties.

2. Curricula and methodologies

What do these changes signify in terms of curricula and methodologies? The importance of “practical”
education was emphasized in the discussions on establishment of the professional and vocational university
system. However, it is not necessarily clear what “practicality” here means specifically.
One possible meaning is that its education is practically useful in that graduates can be placed in charge of
specific tasks as soon as they are hired, forming an immediately accessible pool of talent. If this is possible, it
is certainly a desirable outcome for employers and students themselves. Actually, however, when considered
in concrete terms, this is quite difficult to realize. Duties performed in the real workplace are quite varied, and
it is extremely difficult to accurately match curricula to them. Also, duties required in the workplace change
rapidly.
Considering it, this vision for curricula could be rather regarded as a criticism of the status quo, in which
conventional universities deliver specialized academic education, which is almost completely irrelevant to
actual duties graduates will perform at companies. In that sense, it is desirable for university education to
be more closely related to activities in society. And the new model can be interpreted as not only learning
individual pieces of knowledge related to specific job duties, but also absorbing general knowledge and
attitudes that will be required in the workplace.

(10,000 persons)

16

14

12

10

0
1980 85 90 95 2000 05 10 14 (Year)

Service Commerce / Finance

Construction / Transport / Communications Manufacturing
Public service

Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, “School Basic Survey” for each year.
Figure  2.  Distribution of new four-year university graduates by industry

38 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

 Other 0.9

Culture / Arts Health care

4.8 6.0

Business
2.7 Hygiene
3.7

Engineering Source: The author, based on Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,

2.9 Science and Technology, “School Basic Survey,” 2015.
Education / Figure 3.  Distribution of new professional training
Social welfare college graduates by field of specialization (broadly
1.7 categorized) (2014, unit: 10,000 persons)

Table  1.  Distribution of professional training college students by subject studied (2015)
Actual number Percentage Information 7,693 1.31
of students (%)
Drama/Film 6,761 1.15
Total 588,183 100.00 Nutrition 6,338 1.08
Nursing 96,536 16.41 Other (Hygine) 5,649 0.96
Science / Occupational therapy 37,548 6.38 Commerce 5,060 0.86
Beauty 33,253 5.65 Social welfare 4,498 0.76
Information processing 24,764 4.21 Clinical examinations 3,961 0.67
Other (Culture Arts) 21,184 3.60 Interpretation / Tour guidance 3,508 0.60
Design 19,577 3.33 Computers 3,263 0.55
Automotive maintenance 19,330 3.29 Fashion business 3,206 0.55
Dental hygiene 18,657 3.17 Agriculture 3,127 0.53
Legal administration 15,498 2.63 Radiology 3,030 0.52
Cooking 15,318 2.60 Business administration 2,735 0.46
Judo therapy 15,087 2.57 Electric / Electronics 2,643 0.45
Business 14,806 2.52 Dental technique 2,286 0.39
Other (Engineering) 14,578 2.48 Other (Education / Social Welfare) 2,143 0.36
Early childhood education 14,252 2.42 Art 2,023 0.34
Other (Medical) 14,172 2.41 Barber 1,381 0.23
Travel 13,452 2.29 Other (Agriculture) 985 0.17
Animals 12,939 2.20 Gardening 879 0.15
Music 12,932 2.20 Machinery 863 0.15
Long-term care / Welfare 12,119 2.06 Photography 788 0.13
Confectionery / Baking 11,457 1.95 Home economics 697 0.12
Civil engineering / Construction 11,107 1.89 Secretarial 539 0.09
Acupuncture / Moxibustion / Massage 11,089 1.89 Radio / Communications 485 0.08
Dressmaking (Japanese / Western) 9,957 1.69 Surveying 449 0.08
Sports 9,598 1.63 Cooking 432 0.07
Accounting / Bookkeeping 9,306 1.58 Nursing care 357 0.06
Foreign language 8,941 1.52 Knitting / Handicrafts 285 0.05
Other (Business) 7,740 1.32 Other (Clothing / Housekeeping) 213 0.04

Source: The author, based on Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, “School Basic Survey” 2016.
Note: Fields with 100 or fewer students are omitted.

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 39

 Incidentally, research aimed at empirically validating the relationship between school education and
professional capabilities began in the 1980s in the United States and elsewhere (Business-Higher Education
Forum 1999). This research showed that specific knowledge learned at schools or universities was not very
often used directly in future occupations. Rychen and Salganik (2001) and Nijhof and Streumer (1998) argued
that education at schools plays an important role in cultivating generic skills or competencies. With regard
to Japanese workplaces, where knowledge formed and accumulated within the organization is particularly
important, this becomes an even more convincing argument. It is no wonder that a similar message was
conveyed with the “fundamental competencies for working persons” advocated by the Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry (2006), and a series of related workforce competency campaigns.
If we extend these concepts, it once again becomes evident that the discussion surrounding knowledge,
which connects college or university education and work, is a multilayered one (Figure 4). By providing
specific expertise and skills, college or university education forms not only these, but also generic abilities
such as logical thinking and communication skills, as well as self-awareness and ambition for the future. And
this self-recognition and ambition forms a motivation for acquiring generic competencies, knowledge and
skills. These dynamics of learning bring about intellectual and personal growth of students.
However, these dynamics are not necessarily at work in actual college and university education. For
one thing, that the time Japanese students spend studying is extremely low shows it distinctly, and naturally,
efforts and ingenuity on the part of colleges and universities are needed to overcome this. On the other hand,
the essence of ordinary university education lies in explaining and fostering understanding of systems of
academic knowledge that have already been logically organized.
Meanwhile, encounters with actual society and work, or the search for necessary knowledge and skills
through experience, are of great significance to the university education. This is the so-called pragmatism
theory of John Dewey, who pointed out its importance in primary education, but it actually has great meaning
at the higher education level as well.
In fact, when generic knowledge and self-awareness are assumed as abstract concepts, while their
importance is obvious, in reality they consist only of individual and highly specific abilities and qualities.
In other words, they are created under certain specific conditions and needs, and put into practical use in
relation to them. In this sense, we should think of generic knowledge and self-awareness as developed through
actively taking the initiative in the workplace and society, and through the self-reflection that results.
In this point of view, it is a major challenge for colleges or universities to organically incorporate social
and work experience into their educational programs. The discussion surrounding professional and vocational
education at university has important implications for incorporating this perspective. However, the methods
of introducing “on-site education” such as training in actual workplaces, and of combining vocationally

Systematized, specialized Professional specialized

knowledge knowledge and skills

University
Generic competencies Work
education
Logical thinking and communication

Self-awareness / Ambition

Figure  4.  Multi-layered knowledge and skill model

40 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019

related classes or more specific classes at universities, should be seen as depending on specific occupations.

3. Governance and collaboration with society

Currently, another important challenge is the management and operation of professional and vocational
universities and program. As mentioned earlier, if the movement to establish professional and vocational
universities was propelled by existing professional training colleges, its main objective might be to confer
bachelor degrees on graduates by obtaining the status of universities, rather than necessarily upgrading
education. On the other hand, it is necessary to put organizational systems in place to ensure solid high-quality
education, and mechanisms for monitoring them, focused on fields of study related to the “fluid professions.”
This is not always an easy endeavor.
With respect to academic fields, or established professional and vocational fields, there is an academic
track record, and since there are similar courses offered at multiple universities, mutual evaluation and
monitoring among universities has an effective quality assurance function. However, “fluid professions” are
generally not established as knowledge systems themselves, and individual fields of expertise are narrow, so
it is difficult for similar universities to assemble and mutually evaluate one another. How to overcome this is
an issue.
To that end, organizations that provide a certain amount of advice and monitoring are needed, based on
region or specialized profession in question, from representatives of companies related to the field, or of local
government. For this purpose, creation of Curricular Liaison Councils is envisioned as part of the standards
for establishment that are currently being studied. However, in order for these organizations to have meaning,
they should not merely be advisory bodies, but must have concrete authority.
Besides, it is important for students to gain practical training at companies, and for educational
institutions not only to employ teachers with practical occupational experience, but also to carry out ongoing
human-resource exchange with companies. With regard to the standards for establishment currently under
examination as well, due to such considerations, leeway is granted in terms of flexible conditions for hiring
teachers, such as broadening the definition of full-time faculty members. However, depending on how it is
used, this leeway runs the risk of leading to merely fulfilling the requirements for number of teachers as a
formality. Regarding this point as well, it is essential that a system be instituted for substantive evaluation and
checks, for example by the above-mentioned councils that liaison with society.

IV. Conclusion
This new inauguration of a “professional and vocational university” system grew out of the past history
of Japanese professional and vocational education, and various social and political dynamics. Personally,
I believe it was a significant error to create a separate professional and vocational education system and
officially distinguish it from ordinary university education. On the other hand, this systemic reform makes it
possible to create “professional and vocational programs” even at ordinary universities. It also opens up new
possibilities for the relationship between university education and occupations.
Seen from another angle, in the 21st century, the relationship between university and occupation is
changing significantly. We could say that new model for this relationship is emerging, in addition to the
model of training in modern specialized professions that emerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and
the model of university graduates as human resources supporting the expansion of corporate organizations in
the latter half of the 20th century. This results from a diversifying and fluid industrial structure and increasing
demand for goods, information and services, which university graduates are corresponding to. If we refer to
the emerging occupations as “fluid professions,” it is no wonder that university education will function so as
to adapt to them.
The new system does not necessarily take the place of conventional college or university education, and

Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019 41

may not be very large quantitatively speaking, but for universities, it is important that one new function has
been added. However, its content and methodologies are extremely varied, and various steps are required
from now on to ensure that these institutions and programs have substantive and meaningful curricula. In that
sense I believe we must pay attention to these new possibilities, including the framework of conventional
universities.

* This paper is based on an article on The Japanese Journal of Labour Studies in its October 2017 issue (vol.59, No.687) with additions
and amendments in line with the gist of this journal.

Note
1. “Article 1 schools” refer to kindergartens, elementary schools, lower secondary schools, upper secondary schools, secondary
education schools, schools for special needs education, universities (including junior colleges), and colleges of technology.

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AUTHOR
Motohisa Kaneko  Specially Appointed Professor,
University of Tsukuba. Emeritus Professor, The University
of Tokyo.

42 Japan Labor Issues, vol.3, no.13, March-April 2019