文章基本信息

标题：Japan's Period of High Economic Growth and Science and Technology Education: The Role of Higher Education Institutions
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作者：Akihiro Itoh
期刊名称：Japan Labor Review
印刷版ISSN：1348-9364
出版年度：2014
卷号：11
期号：3
出版社：Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training
摘要：The intent of this paper is to examine quantitative expansion in technology education during the high economic growth period, and its consequences, with a particular focus on the reinforcement of science and technology at institu- tions of higher education. Over the 1955.1975 period the number of science and technology students nearly quintupled, and the bulk of this growth was the result of three governmental plans to boost student capacity in these fields, which are referred to as "the 8,000-Student Plan," "the 20,000-Student Plan" and "the Rapid Increase Plan." The first two of these were essentially a part of Japan's manpower strategy aimed at achieving economic growth. However, even amid favorable economic conditions the implementation of these plans did not progress smoothly, and in particular it was difficult to regulate the quantitative scale of growth at public (non-national) universities and private universities. For this reason the government was forced to provide massive fi- nancial support for these institutions in exchange for cooperation with the plan. Also, while the effort to reinforce science and technology education involved the establishment of a new school format known as "colleges of technology," most of the quantitative expansion during this period took place in the under- graduate faculties of universities. Additionally, these reinforcement efforts were dependent on the strong ambition of private universities to create new faculties and expand existing ones. Amid consistently strong demand for hu- man resources throughout the high economic growth period, the demand for engineers was particularly high during the 1960s, and the reinforcement of science and technology fed this demand. In the 1970s, however, the technical job market grew oversaturated, and graduates branched out into other fields. Through all this, there was only a highly tenuous relationship between science and technology reinforcement measures and Japan's national development plans.