That the death of the head of a small provincial university in the remote Akita district of northern Japan should be national news is remarkable enough. That the same university could in less than 10 years begin to match even prestigious University of Tokyo is even more miraculous.

Yet such is the case for the recently deceased Dr. Mineo Nakajima and the university he managed almost single-handedly to create the Kokusai Kyoyo Daigaku (international liberal education university) — otherwise known as Akita International University. When Nakajima set out in 2003 to create a new university from the remains of a floundering U.S. academic offshoot in remote Tohoku few could have predicted success.

Certainly I had my doubts, even though he had been kind enough to invite me to be his vice president (possibly because we shared an interest in China studies, languages and education reform). Minnesota State had joined the rush in the booming 1980s to create university branches in Japan, and its Akita operation had survived longer than most.