Japan has a fair claim to being the world’s oldest nation. Today, youth is its scarcest and most precious asset. This decade the number of people living in Japan has fallen by about 800,000, and the number of 18-year-olds is falling faster still. If the country is to prosper as its population shrinks, it needs its dwindling band of young people to punch above their weight.
Hence the alarm felt in Japan last month when the country’s premier seat of learning dropped 20 places in a widely followed ranking of the world’s leading universities. The University of Tokyo, previously regarded as peerless among Asian colleges, now ranks below rivals in Singapore and China.
Thirty years ago, Japanese students who graduated from university would (if they were male, at least) amble into a corporate job they would typically keep for a lifetime. The important thing was to secure a degree certificate. As for an education — well, employers could be counted on to take care of that.