Takahiro Miyao's Radio Institute of Global Communications: No. 13, November 7, 2004

Takahiro MIYAO (Professor, GLOCOM)

Partial transcript and translation from Prof. Miyao's Radio Program, posted here with permission of Radio Nikkei

Takahiro Miyao's Radio Institute of Global Communications: No. 13
Radio Nikkei daiichi hoso ; BS Radio Nikkei 300 ch.
Broadcast time:	November 7 (Sunday) 19:00-19:30
Recording place:	Recorded in Radio Nikkei's Studio
Program:	1. Introduction 2. Virtual Discussion 3. Trend Research 4. Concluding Remarks
Audio:	Radio Program  (Windows Media Player) (Mainly in Japanese but some parts in English) Asia Station Web site (in Japanese)

Introduction

Hello. How are you? It looks like the weather is now somewhat stabilized and we can finally enjoy the autumn skies, but then the autumn is over as today is already the beginning of the winter season, according to our traditional calendar. Time flies so fast, so let's get on our business right away. As today's guest, I will interview an American friend of mine, who is teaching and doing research in Japan for many years, and is going to talk about various issues on Japanese higher education today. So, Please stay tuned.

Virtual Discussion

Today we will take up a very interesting article written by a Daiwa Research Institute researcher, Mr. Yutaka Harada, about Japanese housewives, which is currently posted on the GLOCOM Platform (www.glocom.org). That is entitled, "Full-time housewife: a modern invention," where Mr. Harada points out that a higher percentage of Japanese housewives are staying home as full-time housewives than in other advanced countries. Some say that the low labor participation rate of Japanese women is due to a cultural tradition of full-time housemakers, but Mr. Harada denies this and insists that exactly due to economic growth and prosperity, more and more housewives have become able to stay home, thus creating full-time housewives in the later stage of economic development. He implies that we may not have to worry about labor shortages in the future, because women will be ready to work whenever necessary. That is the main point of Mr. Harada's argument.

I think Mr. Harada may be correct in interpreting the history of housewives' labor participation, but in terms of cross sectional comparisons, Japan may be regarded as among the least friendly countries for women to work in the male-dominated society, partly due to its tradition and partly due to its institutional constraints. What do you think?

Trend Research

Today we will have a telephone interview with Dr. Daniel Dolan who specializes in human communication with ten years of experience with Japanese higher education. Dr. Dolan received a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from the University of Washington, and currently is Associate Professor at Meikai University. Next year he will be Professor of Business Communication at Tohoku University. Today he is going to talk about various issues on Japanese universities as well as education in general. The following are some of the questions asked to Dr. Dolan:

1) In view of your experience with both the Japanese and US education systems, how do you compare them? What are the main differences?

2) Many people are talking about educational reform in Japan. What are the problems with Japanese education in general and university education in particular?

3) Japan seems to be spending a lower percentage of GDP on higher education than other developed countries. Why do you think this is the case, and what kind of impact is this likely to have?

4) What are your suggestions for improving the quality of education in general and university education in particular in Japan?

Concluding Remarks:

If you have any comment on today's program, please contact us through our Radio Nikkei hompage (www.radionikkei.jp/joho). Actually you can hear our past broadcast program on our homepage by clicking the "on-demand" section in the upper righthand corner. I hope you enjoyed today's program. Our next program will be on the first Sunday in December, that is, December 5. I will see you then.