Patterns Of Japanese Policy Making by T. J. Pempel

Author:T. J. Pempel [Pempel, T. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Regional Studies, Political Science, World, Asian
ISBN: 9781000313703
Google: nwWdDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-06-10T04:56:11+00:00

The increased concern over this problem of student power led also to a sharp rebuke by Ministry of Education officials when Nagoya University decided to give students a larger role in the hiring process. “Direct participation by students in personnel decisions is not permitted by existing law.… For Nagoya University to give students such rights is both excessive and illegal.”91

The new Chuo University president specifically sought to halt any student momentum. “Any student participation in the management of the university is out of the question,” he declared, and in a comic anachronism he advised faculty members to step up homework assignments to keep students otherwise occupied.92

Prime Minister Sat5 himself was reported to have been visibly infuriated during a cabinet meeting following the mass bargaining session involving his friend, President Furuta. Such actions, he declared, had to be viewed in political rather than educational terms.93

Furthermore, a number of LDP members agreed to cooperate with university administrators at Nihon University, and their support was instrumental in enabling Furuta to refuse to implement the administration-student agreement. This action also represented a substantial movement within the conservative party to take formal action against protesting students.94

Such student victories broadened the scope of involved political actors and put further pressures on the government to resolve the entire university problem. But even more significant in increasing the scope of the issue and the pressures on the Ministry of Education was the extension of student strikes to Tokyo University.

The Tokyo action began in January 1968, escalated throughout the year, and culminated in a nationally televised two-day battle between students and police that resembled the siege of a medieval castle (in this case, Tokyo University’s Yasuda Hall). Coming as it did in the midst of a host of other struggles, the strike at Todai focused attention on the university problem as could no other individual strike. The first modern university in Japan, Todai remained unquestionably the best university in the country in the minds of most Japanese—both political actors and average citizens—and was the alma mater of the prime minister, the bulk of the cabinet, and scores of leaders throughout the country.95 Any expectations that the problem could be quietly resolved by the cooperative efforts of university administrators and the Ministry of Education were totally shattered by the experiences of Todai.96

The general political shock presented by an immobilized Tokyo University was further compounded on January 10, 1969, when students there won a major victory in the form of a “Note of Confirmation” whereby Acting President Katō agreed in principle to ten major categories of student demands, including the dismissal of two faculty members, an apology for “arbitrary” administrative actions, virtual amnesty for students, and an overall expansion of student powers.97

The reaction within the LDP was particularly strong to what was viewed as an unwarranted capitulation by university officials to student violence. A joint meeting of members of the LDP’s Research Council on the Educational System and the party’s Education Committee on January 12 declared that the Note of Confirmation went too far on several points, and urged top party leaders to take official action.

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