Regarding the Oct. 17 editorial "Asian universities catching up," let me make a few comments as a former teacher who worked for a private educational institution in the northern part of Japan.
I always feel indignant to say that tax is used chiefly for national or governmental or public schools. Even in Fukushima Prefecture, parents who send their children to private schools pay approximately four times as much tuition as parents who send their children to public high schools. It is unfair because even the parents who send their children to private schools pay taxes according to their income.
In the case of universities, parents who send their children to private ones pay approximately three or four times as much as parents who send their children to governmental, prefectural or city universities or colleges, and surprisingly in the case of medicine, the difference between private and public ones is approximately 10 times. I'm afraid that Japan is a country of respecting "public" and neglecting "private" traditionally. Generally, the richest families send their children to the University of Tokyo. So parents who send children to public universities must pay almost the same amount of school tuition as parents who send children to private universities!
It is quite natural that the national universities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tohoku have good reputations! Don't use taxes and pay more tuition.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.