The composition of the newly created education "resuscitation" council does not serve as any sure indication of how discussions on education reform, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pet projects, will develop. The advisory panel is headed by Mr. Ryoji Noyori, a laureate of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and chief of RIKEN, an independent administrative institution for comprehensive science and technology research.
The 16 other members include not only pure private-sector people but also former high-ranking bureaucrats of the education ministry -- a former vice minister and a former head of the private school department.
The prime minister wants the panel to come up with recommendations that depart from the thinking of the ministry. But apart from the question of whether the people will support Mr. Abe's education philosophy, the question of whether the panel can be independent from the ministry's influence remains.