Japan cuts Humanities and Arts degrees from universities

[tonymontana99]

http://time.com/4035819/japan-university-liberal-arts-humanities-social-sciences-cuts/

What's your opinion on this? Apart from banning Law and Economics, I think it's a wise move. I agree with what they say, Humanities and Arts degrees aren't worthy; general STEM degrees “better meet society’s needs.” Let's not bullshit ourselves here; we're living in the 21st Century where technology, medicine and science are advancing more rapidly than ever. We don't need "artists" right now.

What this means is that "useless" degrees in the Liberal Arts and Humanities fields will be entirely cut off. Say goodbye to Philosophy, Gender Studies, Anime Studies, Racial Studies, Visual Arts, and all the other non-sense, hobby-tier "degrees". We need engineers, scientists, doctors and physicists, not "philosophers," "artists," or "cartoonists" who spend their year drawing stick figures on cantonese claymation websites.

Your move, West.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/tumblr_mlw64vnS3b1sor8q8o7_1280.jpg

SOON

[Judean Zealot]

I agree with cutting out art studies, but philosophy, history, and political science are vital to maintaining a moral and effective national ideal.

[Left Now]

It is a matter related to Japanese people,so I am not in a position to comment on it.But personally,I believe instead of cutting they should have done something else.

[tonymontana99]

I agree with cutting out art studies, but philosophy, history, and political science are vital to maintaining a moral and effective national ideal.

All of those can be self-taught. I wouldn't want a government institution or my history lectures being given by biased teachers. Philosophy you can learn by getting some books at a library. Political science, like Law and Economics, should've been kept, though. But overall it's good that they're cutting useless Arts degrees.

[Judean Zealot]

All of those can be self-taught. I wouldn't want a government institution or my history lectures being given by biased teachers. Philosophy you can learn by getting some books at a library. Political science, like Law and Economics, should've been kept, though. But overall it's good that they're cutting useless Arts degrees.

In a way I agree with that, being primarily self taught. But the reality is that the number of people pursuing and understanding these disciplines will decline drastically.

[tonymontana99]

In a way I agree with that, being primarily self taught. But the reality is that the number of people pursuing and understanding these disciplines will decline drastically.

Implying that's a bad thing. Most people who get these degrees are the bottom-tier of students or the ones who genuinely have a passion for it. Both of which we do not need right now. Too many emerging technologies and scientific methods; no need for arts/humanities people to question these inventions with fancy arguments about "ethics" or other artificial barriers because they feel like the reincarnation of a famous philosopher.

[phuckphace]

guess this means we'll never see that study on patriarchy in the Soul Society

[Judean Zealot]

Implying that's a bad thing. Most people who get these degrees are the bottom-tier of students or the ones who genuinely have a passion for it. Both of which we do not need right now. Too many emerging technologies and scientific methods; no need for arts/humanities people to question these inventions with fancy arguments about "ethics" or other artificial barriers because they feel like the reincarnation of a famous philosopher.

That's the difference between you and me. I don't put ethics into quotation marks. I care that human society be aimed at something higher than sex and money.

[Vlerchan]

If there's a shortage of engineers and technicians then the wage premium will increase and occupational unemployment will fall. In such a case more people will be incentivised into the occupation and the market will reach equilibrium. What's going to happen here is that a number of (art-and-humanities-orientated) students with mismatched skills are going to be ferried into the sciences - the wage premium will fall - and productivity growth will slump, leading to a consequent slump in wage growth. In such a case the best and brightest in Japan will be met with a rising wage premium in the humanities and arts -esp. Finance: which has a large wage premium as-is - and will be incentivised to adopt these roles. Or better yet, will train to be engineers and scientists and then emigrate to countries where the wage premium isn't being artificially undermined.

Japan doesn't need economists eh? Bah!

[Judean Zealot]

If there's a shortage of engineers and technicians then the wage premium will increase and occupational unemployment will fall. In such a case more people will be incentivised into the occupation and the market will reach equilibrium. What's going to happen here is that a number of (art-and-humanities-orientated) students with mismatched skills are going to be ferried into the sciences - the wage premium will fall - and productivity growth will slump, leading to a consequent slump in wage growth. In such a case the best and brightest in Japan will be met with a rising wage premium in the humanities and arts -esp. Finance: which has a large wage premium as-is - and will be incentivised to adopt these roles. Or better yet, will train to be engineers and scientists and then emigrate to countries where the wage premium isn't being artificially undermined.

Japan doesn't need economists eh? Bah!

Move to Japan- you'll corner the market! :P

[Miserabilia]

I'm not saying we don't need art, just that art and humanities studies are prettty fucking useless and we're generaly better off without them since people coming out of them don't seem to achieve a lot.

[Judean Zealot]

I'm not saying we don't need art, just that art and humanities studies are prettty fucking useless and we're generaly better off without them since people coming out of them don't seem to achieve a lot.

Arguably the broad humanities are more necessary for a stable government then are STEM subjects.

[Porpoise101]

http://time.com/4035819/japan-university-liberal-arts-humanities-social-sciences-cuts/

What's your opinion on this? Apart from banning Law and Economics, I think it's a wise move. I agree with what they say, Humanities and Arts degrees aren't worthy; general STEM degrees “better meet society’s needs.” Let's not bullshit ourselves here; we're living in the 21st Century where technology, medicine and science are advancing more rapidly than ever. We don't need "artists" right now.

What this means is that "useless" degrees in the Liberal Arts and Humanities fields will be entirely cut off. Say goodbye to Philosophy, Gender Studies, Anime Studies, Racial Studies, Visual Arts, and all the other non-sense, hobby-tier "degrees". We need engineers, scientists, doctors and physicists, not "philosophers," "artists," or "cartoonists" who spend their year drawing stick figures on cantonese claymation websites.

Your move, West.

image (http://www.theamericanconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/tumblr_mlw64vnS3b1sor8q8o7_1280.jpg)

SOON
No. Maybe gender studies or whatever could be cut but arts like history, language, music, visual arts, and even philosophy are important. They embody our humanity and are as important as the maths and sciences. In fact, they are part of what made the West great. Perhaps instead we should increase the value of those degrees or limit the amount of people who receive them though. After all, there are only a limited amount of great artists, thinkers, and historians throughout history so we should treat those degrees in a way so they are special and go to those who deserve it.

You are right about STEM jobs being important, and even I want to go into plant biology one day. Probably the only two things that make Japan relevant culturally in the US are robots and anime (not that I watch it). One of those is arts and one is STEM and I hope they both have a future in this world.

[Capto]

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. By the title I thought something drastic was actually happening.

Shimomura's letter has been out since June. It was directed solely to the 86 national universities, or 国立大学, which make up roughly 11% of our total amount of higher education institutions. Of those, two of the most relevant and the best, Tōkyō and Kyōto, have actively spoken out against the request. Other larger universities, such as Ōsaka, Tōhoku, Okayama, Nagoya, Hokkaidō, and Kyūshū, have afaik not complied at all. It's worth noting that the humanities departments in terms of student population of all 26 universities who responded favorably in some fashion to Shimomura's letter have a combined population of 1300. Plus we're getting less and less incoming students each year. All that combined, it's simply the economical choice for these 26 institutions. In the long run and in the bigger picture, nothing much has changed at all, and nothing much will happen for quite some time.

As for personal bias, I'm not a fan of Shimomura because he's spearheading the whole replace history textbook shenanigans and has just about stopped short of calling himself a revisionist.

[tonymontana99]

No. Maybe gender studies or whatever could be cut but arts like history, language, music, visual arts, and even philosophy are important. They embody our humanity and are as important as the maths and sciences. In fact, they are part of what made the West great. Perhaps instead we should increase the value of those degrees or limit the amount of people who receive them though. After all, there are only a limited amount of great artists, thinkers, and historians throughout history so we should treat those degrees in a way so they are special and go to those who deserve it.

You are right about STEM jobs being important, and even I want to go into plant biology one day. Probably the only two things that make Japan relevant culturally in the US are robots and anime (not that I watch it). One of those is arts and one is STEM and I hope they both have a future in this world.

History, language, music, visual arts and philosophy are all suicide-tier degrees. All of those you can learn by watching YouTube tutorials and reading books you can pick up at the library. At least, like you said, the openings for these degrees should be greatly, greatly reduced. Degrees like Biotechnology, Applied Mathematics, Finance, Petroleum Engineering (and all the other Engineering degrees) or Aeronautical Physics are much, much harder to learn and usually require data analysis and experimentation. We don't need another historian, we don't need another language connoisseur, we don't need another "musician," we don't need another "artist," and we certainly don't need another 20-something-year-old "philosopher" asking about the ethics and morals of developing chemical weapons, genetic engineering human beings, advanced AI, robots or whatever. Let's hope in the future Japan stops being the place where limp-dick liberal arts nerds who beat it to anime characters and import Japan-only videogames desire and go to, and the country starts being known by its technological wonders, many of which haven't even been introduced in the West. And the rest of the world should follow the example.

[Vlerchan]

Capto: Thank you. I was waiting for you to post and tell us what was actually going on.

[Capto]

It's also worth noting that Japan has a very unique university culture.

Here meaning that university is generally a time to slack off and relax after high school and prepare for the hard, exhausting life of a salaryman. Truancy rates in uni are incredibly high. It's all to relax for the time until you're required to go into the workforce and work your ass of for most of the rest of your life by entering one of the most hellish work cultures in the world.

Should that not appeal to you, you can go to post-grad. But only around 7% of grads actually do that, which is rather unfortunate. The rest simply enter the Japanese workforce.

[SethfromMI]

I agree with cutting out art studies, but philosophy, history, and political science are vital to maintaining a moral and effective national ideal.

again hate to agree with you on anything, but I do here. I do think there should be at least a few universities which offer art programs, but maybe tie it in with an advertising degree or something of that nature.

That is a lot of programs they cut though. I see why they did it, but like you, some degrees really shouldn't be cut

[tonymontana99]

That's the difference between you and me. I don't put ethics into quotation marks. I care that human society be aimed at something higher than sex and money.

Sex and money? What does sex have to do with anything I said? I care that human society be aimed at something higher than "ethics" and "morals". Nothing should prevent technological and scientific progress. If anything, these degrees should be pushed to private, extremely expensive colleges and/or be only minors. I wouldn't want my taxpayer money to be spent on some hippie philosopher/artist for him to get his BA in African Studies and end up working in McDonald's complaining on how his burger-flipping skills are being underestimated and demand his wage to be set at 15 bucks am hour. Give me a break.

[StoppingTom]

I mean, it makes sense I suppose. I've always been of the opinion that those areas of education aren't bad at all, but to make that the primary focus of your education is a bit risky and maybe those studies should be relegated to minor degrees only.