Japan builds near $700M fund to lure foreign academic talent Japan is the latest nation hoping to tempt disgruntled US researchers alarmed by the Trump administration's hostile attitude to academia to relocate to the Land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese government aims to create an elite research environment, and has detailed a ¥100 billion ($693 million) package to attract researchers …
What did you expect? They've taken much more cash than that away from UK unis with government policies that restrict foreign talent.
The government's primary aim is to reduce net inflow, undermining Reform. Regardless of the damage.
Any cash for this would be a token gesture. Many UK unis are in such a state now, UK academics and researchers will be applying for Euro and JP funded escape. This is not entirely due to government failure though. Some unis have been very badly run, spending huge amounts on the pay of senior management, consultants, and vanity projects. In the end, academics and students suffer and courses get cut.
Now I know many here will not like what I'm going to say, but...
It's the politics (mainly) of the old. They don't like foreigners, so we have to stop immigrants -- remember brexit? But they also don't want to pay more tax to fund investment and development in the country, and simply expect the working population to pay. Yet, for the first time ever in the history of mankind, we have a huge and rapidly growing older generation who have been led to believe that their 2/6 NI (National Insurance) payments ever week were enough to pay for the NHS and their pensions. Now when there were far fewer of them and they only lived for a couple of years after retiring that was affordable.
But times have changed; drastically. Now the old can expect to live 15 to 20 years into retirement. An ever growing proportion many years more. They think their NI payments were for them. And that is not true at all, their NI payments have always been to pay for people who were already retired, not for their retirement. But don't let ignorance spoil their selfish world view.
Where does this leave universities? Well, they need to be funded, and as no political party is prepared to put up the main taxes because the old (whose vote you need to gain power) would not touch them with a barge pole, so they need alternative funding, and foreign students have always been a go-to place. But while the crinklies don't want to pay any more tax (eg a tax on their homes when they die, which would be painless), they also don't want anyone who isn't white and whose diet isn't fish and chips (at least here, up north) from coming into the country.
If you want our country to get better someone will have to pay for it. And the best people to pay are those with the money. And the old have (most of) the money. We can't tax, coz you won't get elected, we can't grow our economy, coz we're not allowed to talk to Europe, and we can't get on in the wider world, coz everyone is still laughing at is for the self-inflicted wound of brexit.
Even Japan, that also hates foreigners, is being forced to address their ageing population by considering immigration as their robot carer policy is not actually providing a solution. Somebody needs to tell our (alas often racist) old folk, that either we have immigration or they pay more.
If they don't pay more and we stop immigration we are fucked.
I offer you this challenge. If you are going to down-vote me, please also provide your prescription to what needs to be done.
Having colleagues that have worked in Japan... They are not very fond of the conditions they were subjected too, but there are two camps 1) Working for a foreign/transnational company in Japan, in which my friends say it is just the same as in other country for the same company, however with lower wages but acceptable due to the social security net 2) Working for a national company, which was a very negative experience due to being relegated to uninteresting tasks; for example, a guy who is a PhD in human-machine interfaces, was hired to a researching position, but ended doing trivial stuff like pixel-perfect CSS fixing and UI coloring, doing longer hours and socially ostracized, and so on, so he returned very dissatisfied. Having less than a PhD, they would usually just assign factory or so jobs.
Summarizing, they expect the best of the best, but don't offer a good environment.
Japan recently has been trying to play a cool multiethnic image in the global stage (For example, a couple of Miss Universe candidates, several sports players), but when it comes to in the ground behaviour, things are very different and they are not very welcoming.
Now with the tourism problems they are experiencing, they are even less amicable to foreigners than ever (Well, maybe since Matthew Perry opened their borders, not the Friends actor!)
I can believe the negative experience of your colleagues. JP is very different from just about any other nation let alone a western European one.
Life isn't exactly brilliant for the local inhabitants which some of younger generation understand. Some wash up in AU or hook up with an Australian and are more than content to call AU home permanently.
On the other hand Australian chaps who have acquired JP girlfriends etc and/or were proficient in the language have settled happily in JP in spite of all the difficulties foreigners face.
I have often jokingly remarked that beneath the serenity and minimalist elegance of Japanese art and architecture lurks the repressed homicidal psychotic. Possibly a wry joke.
Btw I found the typo "when it comes to in the ground behaviour, things are very different " rather amusing given the traditional Japanese beliefs regarding ghosts. Generally in my part of the world any potential behaviour of anyone once placed in the ground is invariably severely curtailed. :)
Still Japan has a remarkable culture ancient but incredibly resilient unlike any other in resisting the more insidious consequences of western contact since Meiji restoration; a culture that is largely ineffable to the unexceptional foreigner.
When reading The Tale of Genji (Murasaki) it's hard to credit it was written by a Japanese woman over a thousand years ago when just about everyone in Europe including the great and good were completely illiterate.
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Japan has a lot of racism. They're much too civilized to be offensive about it, but they do not integrate with foreigners. There's a big gap in culture that they'd rather not deal with. Foreiners are rare outside of Tokyo and tourist areas.
A lot of Asia is on the rigid "chain of command" work ethic too. It's stifling to westerners that are accustomed to newer work environments where people have duties and specializations, but open communication.
Yeah, right...
Experienced academic talent with Ph.D. in electrical engineering here, interested in research opportunities in Japan... /s (NOT!)
I am not buying any Japanese products, no electronics, no cars, nothing, as long as the Kangei Maru exists, as long as they kill whales. Boycotting Sony, Canon, Nikon, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, anything from Japan,,,
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