Japan's education minister sent a notice to the presidents of the country's 86 national universities in June telling them to abolish undergraduate and graduate schools devoted to the humanities and social sciences or shift curricula to fields the government thinks have "greater utilitarian value." There was a clear "or else" behind the demand — or else you won't get money. Even for a government counting its yen to pay for the pensions and social security of its ageing population and to send its soldiers off to foreign fields, this is a dangerous decision.
Three months later, facing a backlash, the education ministry claims the order was misinterpreted. It is not seeking abolition of the humanities, but it wants more "efficiency" and graduates "with skills to excel in a global environment." Sadly, Japan is making too many mistakes.
One error is to invent a dichotomy between humanities and sciences. Another is to assume that university learning can be subjected to a government efficiency index. More egregious is the Abe government's belief that it can change the world by edict. On top of this, Japan's universities, with the exceptions of Tokyo and Kyoto, are not in the global league and do not understand what makes a university international.