In the 1990s, the education ministry announced a policy of making graduate schools the center of education and research at what had traditionally been undergraduate universities. At about the same time, restrictions on a liberal arts education for undergraduates were relaxed, allowing even freshmen students to take courses in specialized subjects.
Yet it seems to me that allowing specialized study for four years at the undergraduate level and then establishing programs of more of the same in graduate school are redundant.
Many scholars are likely to believe that if graduate schools must expand to attract more students, universities should give undergraduates a more advanced liberal arts education that's distinguishable from specialized study.