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Part 1   Higher Education to Support a Knowledge-Based Society Full of Creative Vitality - New Developments in Higher Education Reform
Chapter 2   New Developments in Higher Education Reform
Section 2   Responding to Diverse Requirements of Society
1   Training of Professionals with Advanced Specialized Skills



(1) Professional Graduate School System

The professional graduate school system was established in FY2003 as a new graduate school mechanism to carry out "practical education specializing in the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills." The system is different from previous graduate schools, with a view to fulfilling the function of cultivating human resources possessing advanced specialized abilities expected by society. Through this system, the aim is qualitative and quantitative improvements to the cultivation of professionals with advanced specialized skills that are valid internationally and in society.

1) Background

Due to the rapid changes, diversification, increasing complexity, advancement and globalization in society and the economy, the social need for the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills in graduate schools has been increasing.

When the 1974 Standards for the Establishment of Graduate Schools was enacted, it was clearly stated that the aim of a master's course was the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills in graduate school education. Then, in 1989, an amendment to the Standards for the Establishment of Graduate Schools clearly stated that the aim of the doctorate course was also the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills. In this way, efforts have been made to clarify the position of graduate school education. However, it has been suggested that until now, graduate schools have largely developed centered on training researchers, and education fulfilling the role of training professionals with advanced specialized skills has been insufficient.

Against this background, in 1999, the "professional school system," a forerunner of the professional graduate school system, was founded as a graduate school master's course carrying out education specializing in the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills. Professional schools were established in such fields as business management, finance and public health, among others, and education to train professionals with advanced specialized skills, who can take an active part in the international arena, was actively carried out. Each field received a high evaluation.

It has been suggested, however, that because this system was designed within the framework of the previous graduate school system, system design reasons precluded it from carrying out thorough training of professionals with advanced specialized skills. For example, it was necessary to pass research result assessments to complete courses, and it was not possible to certify course completion based only on obtaining credits centered on the systematic taking of class subjects (course work).

For this reason, at a time when it is being forecast that the need for training of professionals with advanced specialized skills in graduate schools will grow even more, the August 2002 Central Council for Education Report recommended the founding of "professional schools" that carry out practical education specializing in the "training of human resources possessing advanced and specialized professional abilities" as a new graduate school system making possible flexible and practical education that responds to the special characteristics of various professional fields. In response to this recommendation, the School Education Law was partially amended (coming into force on 1 April 2003), and through the enactment of the Standards for the Establishment of Professional Graduate Schools (coming into force the same day), the "professional graduate school system" was put into place as new graduate schools specializing in the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills (professional schools became professional graduate schools in FY2003) ( Figure 1-2-8 ).

Figure 1-2-8 Founding of the Professional Graduate School System and Professional Degrees

2) Distinctive features

The basis of the system is as follows:

(a) System to be based on a two-year standard required duration of study (However, the required duration of study can be less than two years, but more than one year, in cases where it is recognized to be especially necessary to adapt it to the special characteristics of specialized fields)
(b) As a condition of course completion, only study exceeding a specified period, and the obtaining of the credits necessary for each field of specialization (course work) is necessary; a thesis or research results on a specified issue are not necessary
(c) Provision of diverse, practical education, such as case studies, debates and on-the-spot surveys
(d) Deployment of a considerable number of educators with rich experience of practical matters in professional fields
Class using a teleconferencing system (Graduate School of International Managemant, Aoyama Gakuin University)

Furthermore, for graduate law schools (details in (2)), which are one form of professional graduate schools, a number of special regulations have been established, such as a study period of three years or more, with a view to building a legal training system as a "process" in which legal education, the national bar examination and apprenticeship training are in close cooperation.

3) Founding of professional degrees

Previously, students who completed graduate school (master's courses, doctorate courses) were conferred "master's" and "doctorate" degrees, but as professional graduate schools (professional degree courses) are a new type of course specializing in the training of professionals with advanced specialized skills, students who have completed the courses are conferred, in addition to traditional degrees, "professional degrees" different from master's or doctorate degrees. These degrees take into account the social and international usefulness of the skills of the student, and certify that the student has obtained advanced specialized skills.

4) The state of establishment of professional graduate schools

Fields in professional graduate schools that are currently established include business management and public health, among others. Furthermore, from April 2004, graduate law schools will start. In addition, it is expected that in the future, professional graduate schools will be established in fields of specialization related to vocational qualifications such as national qualifications, fields of specialization in which the training of human resources possessing socially specified advanced professional skills are necessary, and fields in which human resources training to an international standard is necessary ( Table 1-2-1 ).

Table 1-2-1 State of Establishment of Professional Graduate Schools


(2) Graduate law schools

It is forecast that in modern Japanese society there will be an increase in the internationalization of the economy and finance, global problems such as human rights and environmental degradation, and legal controversies requiring specialist legal knowledge such as disputes over intellectual property rights and medical malpractice. In addition, it is predicted that there will be a quantitative expansion in demand for the legal profession in various areas of the lives of the people as well as more and more qualitative advancement and diversification. To respond to these developments, the urgent and important issue is to increase greatly the number of legal professionals without compromising the "quality" of the profession.

1) Background

In July 1999, the Justice System Reform Council was established under the auspices of the Cabinet with the aim of "investigating and deliberating fundamental measures necessary for justice reform and justice infrastructure arrangement by defining the role of the Japanese administration of justice in the 21st century, including the realization of a more accessible and user-friendly justice system, public participation in the justice system, redefinition of the legal profession and reinforcement of its function." The Justice System Reform Council held discussions at over 60 meetings over a two-year period, and in June 2001 presented the Recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council to the Cabinet.

In the recommendations, three fundamental principles were cited: "construction of a justice system responding to public expectations," "how the legal profession supporting the justice system should be" and "establishment of the popular base." In addition, it has been suggested that concerning legal training, due to the intensifying competition in the national bar examination, the tendency of students to rely heavily on cram schools is increasing remarkably, leading to the situation described as "double schooling" or the "trend away from attending university," which is having a serious effect on securing the qualities required of people to be legal professionals. Hence, graduate law schools have been positioned as the central educational institution of the legal training system, with the training system understood to be not just a selection of people through only one "point," the national bar examination, but a "process" of organically coordinating legal education, the national bar examination and apprenticeship training. The government, in the same month, with full respect for the recommendations of the Council, decided to make efforts towards justice system reform in a Cabinet decision ( Figure 1-2-9 ).

Figure 1-2-9 Graduate Law School Concept

2) Specific system design

Against this background, in August 2001, the "Graduate Law School Section" (head of the section: Koji Sato, Professor of the School of Law, Kinki University) was set up within the Subcommittee on Universities under the Central Council for Education, and in cooperation with the Office for Promotion of Justice System Reform newly established by the Cabinet in December of that year, it carried out deliberations centered on educator organizations, education content and methods, selection of entrants, and so on, the areas directly involved with the system design as graduate schools of graduate law schools. In August 2002, it completed its report "Standards for the Establishment of Graduate Law Schools," making recommendations concerning the specific form graduate law schools should take. Based on this report, on 31 March 2003, the establishment standards concerning graduate law schools were promulgated.

Furthermore, at the same time as the amendments to the School Education Law stated above, the "National Bar Examination Law" and the "Court Organization Law" were partially amended and the "Law concerning Cooperation Between Graduate Law School Education and the National Bar Examination" was enacted. Through this process, the basic philosophy of legal training, the improvement of education in graduate law schools, securing of organic cooperation between graduate law school education and the national bar examination, the method and subjects of the new national bar examination, and so on, were stipulated and the legal training system as a "process" was specifically prepared.

In addition, to train in graduate law schools a large number of legal professionals possessing outstanding qualities who are able to meet the diverse and wide-ranging demands of the people, it is necessary to secure the effectiveness of education concerning actual work as a legal professional. For this reason, a system to dispatch judges, public prosecutors and other working legal professionals to graduate law schools as educators was established under the "Law concerning the Dispatch of Judges, Public Prosecutors, and Other National Public Servants in the Regular Service to Graduate Law Schools," which was passed in April 2003.

Distinctive Features of Graduate Law Schools

3) Future plan

Concerning the establishment approval (planned) for the graduate law schools that are planned to be opened in FY2004, in July 2003 upon an inquiry from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Council for the Establishment of Universities and School Corporations carried out an inspection of the curriculum, educator organization and others, and submitted a report. Based on this report, the establishment of 68 universities was approved.

After establishment approval, each graduate law school implemented individual examinations, such as interviews and essays, and in April 2004 they will begin accepting students.


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