Shaking Things Up

EDUCATION

JAPAN-A former University of California professor has been tapped to help overhaul Japan's university system in a drive to pro- mote creativity and entrepreneurship. Physician Kiyoshi Kurokawa (left), 70, joins six other luminaries from industry and academia on the"lnnovation 25" strategy council, set up out of fear that a graying and shrinking population will cause Japan's productivity to decline against that of global competitors like China.

Unusually outspoken in a society that still values conformity, Kurokawa has criticized the rigidity of Japanese university education and its hierarchical research system. Kurokawa also says Japanese schools should drastically boost their international enrollment, ideally to a 70-30 ratio of Japanese to foreign students. According to 2006 statistics from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the percentage of foreign students in Japanese universities stood at 2.7-well below the rich-country average of 6.5 percent. Japanese engineering professors have long lamented that their universities are too insular and lack the stimulation of their more ethnically diverse U.S. counterparts.

The innovation campaign coincides with a transitional period for Japan's university system, which is suffering a severe drought of students. Next year, for the first time ever, the number of college applicants will equal the number of places available.-LUCILLE CRAFT

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