After a proposal led by the University of Tokyo to start the academic year in the fall was abandoned, the university's strategy for encouraging students to internationalize will attempt an interim measure of setting up a quarterly system. The change, while not as sweeping as the original proposal, will at least be a move toward encouraging Japanese students to study abroad. It will also encourage other Japanese universities to find more flexible ways for students to gain global skills, knowledge and experience. If they continue as is, they and their students will find themselves increasingly isolated in a globalizing world.
The University of Tokyo has led the national push for students to study abroad. That goal should not be abandoned. The need to globalize Japanese education remains as urgent as ever.
However, because of deep resistance to changing to autumn enrollment for the school year, the limited proposal to break the school year into quarters will at least have the important benefit of making the schedule more flexible.