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The Chinese government has been actively recruiting foreign-trained Chinese scholars to return to China since the Chinese brain drain began. Japan is among the most popular destinations for Chinese scholars seeking to receive doctoral training. This study explores the factors contributing to the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs' academic career attainments using the Mertonian norm of universalism. The results indicate that the norm of universalism can partly explain the stratification of Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs. The reason for this is that their higher pre-graduation productivity enhances the chance that Japanese-trained Chinese PhDs have of obtaining an academic position at a top university in China. In addition to pre-graduation academic productivity, other factors, including the prestige of the university attended, the duration of the academic sojourn in Japan, and the ethnicity of the supervisor influence employment outcomes.

Indicator 4.7.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) measures the extent to which Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) are incorporated into educational documents. An appropriate framework is crucial to accurately monitor the level of incorporation, but a framework that can confirm validity is not yet present. This case study uses Japan to explore a valid analytical framework that can measure the level of ESD and GCED incorporation. By proposing our framework and testing its validity, we developed an analytical framework which consists of eight topics organised with three themes.

The aim of this study is to identify the most prolific countries in the field of special education and to discuss the widespread impact of their papers by taking into account the country's h-index. Through a bibliometric analysis, the data were collected in the Web of Science Core Collection category "Education, Special" in the Social Science Citation Index during 2011-2020. The 25 most prolific countries in the field of special education were determined in terms of paper productivity, and it was seen that the leading country was undisputedly the USA (54.42%). Meanwhile, a strong positive correlation was found between the h-index and the number of papers published by the countries (r=0.864). On the other hand, when the ranking in terms of the number of papers was reconfigured by the h-index, it was relatively changed. The possible reasons for this change for the countries with the most changing rankings were discussed by considering some definitive criteria such as the journal quartiles, the percentage of international and domestic, and the percentage of open access papers. This study reports a positive correlation between the quality and quantity in the field of special education for the publications of countries. It has been shown that where the positive correlation deviates, then especially, the journal quartiles, the percentage of international collaboration and the percentage of open access papers have a significant effect. The bibliometric findings may be useful to enrich the discussion about the widespread impact of papers and debate whether the use of h-index is acceptable for cross-national comparisons.

There is a hypothesis that Research-Teaching-Study Nexus (R-T-S Nexus) should be developed as an ideal of modern university constantly since its proposition by Wilhelm Humboldt in 1910. Despite given hypothesis, however, it has not been necessarily accepted by the AP (Academic Profession) in the world according to Carnegie, CAP and APIKS surveys, the three international and comparative surveys on the AP, conducted during past thirty years. Difficulty of realizing compatible research and teaching is thought to be a negative preposition for realization of R-T-S nexus. How to eliminate such difficulty is indispensable for the AP in the world. As far as Japan is concerned, the national policy of research orientation has been worked for priority of research-university rather than teaching-university. This doctrine has been internalized strongly in the AP's consciousness in all universities and colleges to the extent that realization of the given ideal of R-T-S nexus is hardly successful.

It is no longer sufficient for higher education providers to solely focus on fostering academic research communication skills in their doctoral candidates, as a broader skillset is needed to communicate research effectively to diverse audiences. Such knowledge mobilisation facilitates research impact beyond academia and is linked to funding opportunities and career advancement. This paper draws upon qualitative interview data from 30 early career researchers (ECRs) based in both Australia and Japan, exploring how their experiences during doctoral candidature prepared them to produce research outputs for both academic and non-academic audiences. It also sought to capture their perceived overall knowledge and skills in producing these academic research outputs for diverse audiences. Findings suggest that preparedness for producing research outputs for the academic community during doctoral candidature are shaped by supervision, self-direction and experience. Far less support for producing research outputs for non-academic users may be provided during doctoral candidature. ECRs' perception of capability for academic research output production stems from benchmarking against personal prior performance, and colleagues in the field. Capability for non-academic research output production may be much lower than for academic research output production, with ECRs' professional experiences beyond academia supporting development of these skills.

This study examines international brain race for world-class universities as measured by the QS World University Rankings (QS) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities, particularly in the context of Asian nations' institutional competition and benchmarking against American counterparts. Applying mixed methods with statistical analysis of time-series data from 59 nations and case study of four selected nations, the study examines the cross-national trends of global university rankings and the roles of government policies during the era of performance-driven accountability in higher education. Tracking the zero-sum game of global university rankings over the past decade, the study accounts for key driving factors that produced divergent trajectories among the nations: how and why the USA as established leader and Japan as early catch-up leader become losers, whereas China and Korea as fast followers become winners? Although the Asian catch-up model of world-class university development, high-stakes institutional competitions and targeted funding with STEM priorities contributed to their rapid growth of research productivity and rankings, it reveals major limitations and problems. Drawing cross-national lessons and implications, we discuss new directions of higher education policies and global university ranking measures.

This research investigates the extent to which emotional labour is experienced by non-Japanese teachers of English as a foreign language in Japan, what coping mechanisms are employed and how it impairs individual performance. Understanding these issues is pivotal in improving the competitive advantage of these organisations and the productivity of the many individuals that continue to work in the industry. The research has demonstrated that teachers carried out surface acting on a daily basis and several instructors acknowledged the need to perform deep acting over a sustained period of time. Whereas some teachers endured the working conditions, the most important coping mechanism involved engaging in camaraderie. Teachers had difficulties not being allowed to exhibit any form of creativity, having excessive workloads, dealing with students who were silent, had mental problems or were xenophobic. These factors made their working conditions stressful and emotionally draining.

This paper assesses the evolution and current situation of the Chinese research system, mainly the academic research system from 1996 to 2017, using trend analysis and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index. Despite the impressive growth of China's knowledge capability, as measured by the number of publications in the international indexed literature over the past four decades, the country is still in a catching-up pattern with the world's most advanced research systems, instead of being a full-fledged scientific superpower. The analysis shows that China's publication growth has been to some extent inflated, as it was boosted by the inclusion of Chinese language journals in the international indexed literature. Therefore, this growth should be considered in a more moderate light. The competitiveness of China's disciplinary areas appears somewhat stalled when comparing the 1996-2000 and 2013-2017 periods, during which the same STEM-related disciplinary areas were the most competitive. This finding reveals not only a specialised knowledge structure, typical of catching-up countries, but also underperforming and neglected disciplinary areas in the social sciences, humanities and health sciences from a research funding standpoint. Based on this assessment, it is recommended that policymakers and university administrators change their focus from research quantity to research visibility by allocating funding in a less concentrated way to STEM fields, while promoting collaborative initiatives that can encourage the qualifications of academics and the visibility of the knowledge they produce.

In the 21st century, when the universalization of higher education demands diversified students to be more involved in study and rather than in learning, the ideal of scholarship is expected to transform toward both teaching orientation and study orientation, with a focus on the teaching and study process in the classrooms with a result of being a research, teaching and study nexus (R-T-S nexus). In reality, however, it is apparent that the scholarship of research orientation persists throughout the world. This paper attempts to shed light on the given theme by making analysis of the results gained from three international surveys on the academic profession. Higher education is defined by the mutual interaction among several important factors, including social change, knowledge development, the national government's higher education policy, and the academic profession's identity and initiative in the process of reacting to the effects of these factors. In this picture, the priority of reform converges to the teaching and study process in which academics' teaching ability and students' study ability are focal. The Humboldtian model is useful, not only for students at the stage of elite higher education in the second age, but also for the counterparts at the stage of universalization in the third age, although it needs to be modified so as to be suitable to the situation at the universal stage of higher education development. Comparison between academics' preferences in teaching and research orientations by country in the CAP survey reveals that convergence on the research orientation has increased, at least in advanced countries. The universalization of higher education will need more of a teaching orientation among academics worldwide, to support students' study and so the current trend toward a research orientation must necessarily be confronted in the context of R-T-S nexus in many countries, especially in Japan.

Writing groups have been implemented in higher education institutions in the US, UK and Australia as a means of supporting a writer's productivity (e.g., journal articles or book chapters) as well as developing their soft academic skills (e.g., collegiality). However, writing groups are seldom discussed in the Japanese context. Therefore, this study describes the development, facilitation and implications of writing groups at a Japanese university (i.e., graduate and faculty level groups who met on a weekly basis for eight to ten weeks). The ways in which the facilitator managed each group using structured and unstructured approaches are discussed focusing on a description of the social, theoretical and practical activities of each group. In order to analyze the efficacy of the writing groups, participant experiences were explored in terms of their initial assumptions, expectations and successes. Finally, the characteristics of the two writing groups are compared to previous research findings. The comparison demonstrates that both groups are similar to those in other contexts. Group members are faced with universal issues such as time pressures, motivation, and varying writing abilities. Overall, this study draws attention to the characteristics of two types of writing groups at this particular university, and begins the conversation regarding the development, facilitation and efficacy of these groups in the Japanese context.

This study analyzed the factors required for a researcher to become a professor in the humanities and sociology, science and engineering, medicine and biology, and general studies fields. The study focuses on research productivity and analyzes the impact of hiatuses in research production on promotion in universities as well as the time at which such hiatuses have the least impact on promotions. I divided the factors required for promotion into three categories: academic performance (the number of published articles, books, and competitive grants and funding sources acquired), social elements (gender), and elements related to the duration of periods with no research output and their timing. The results show that the probability of promotion to professorship increases as the number of papers in Scopus, the number of books published, and the amount of acquired competitive funds increase. As expected, longer declines in research productivity reduce the probability of promotion. However, it is not always necessary for researchers to publish continuously throughout their careers; the results show that a decline in research productivity other than during the first five years and the period from 20 to 30 years after the start of the research career has no influence on academic promotions.

This article looks at the evolution of university-industry collaboration (UIC) policies in Japan since the mid-1990s to the present and analyses their role in shaping the country's innovation ecosystem. UIC policies are examined within a multidimensional innovation policy framework that encompasses five Science and Technology Basic Plans and a vast array of support measures for venture business, intellectual property, innovation networks and business promotion, all reflecting an extensive top-down government intervention with ambitious goals. A dense network of UIC centres has been established throughout the country, mostly in universities, and these centres are tightly embedded in regional innovation structures. In spite of the sustained government policy intervention, Japan lags behind the United States and Europe in a ranking of the top 20 global ecosystems and has some of the world's lowest entrepreneurial indicators, as defined by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. The authors argue that a likely cause for the lag is Japan's slow and still incomplete transition from a "traditional" innovation system to a modern innovation ecosystem with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and culture, effective intermediaries between university and industry, high absorptive capacity in companies using academic research, cross-boundary mobility of workforce and ideas and global outreach. The experience of Osaka University and Hokkaido University, two UIC leaders in Japan and internationally, supports this hypothesis.

We explored the social shaping of science at the micro-level reality of face-to-face interaction in one of the traditional places for scientific activities--the scientific lab. We specifically examined how doctoral students' perception of their: (i) interaction with doctoral mentors (MMI) and (ii) lab social environment (LSE) influenced productivity. Construed as the production of peer-reviewed articles, we measured productivity using total number of articles (TOTAL), number of articles with impact factor greater than or equal to 4.00 (IFGE4), and number of first-authored articles (NFA). Via face-to-face interviews, we obtained data from n = 210 molecular biology Ph.D. students in selected universities in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. Additional productivity data (NFA) were obtained from online bibliometric databases. To summarize the original 13 MMI and 13 LSE semantic-differential items which we used to measure students' perceptions, principal component (PC) analyses were performed. The results were smaller sets of 4 MMI PCs and 4 LSE PCs. To identify which PCs influenced publication counts, we performed Poisson regression analyses. Although perceived MMI was not linked to productivity, perceived LSE was linked: Students who perceived their LSE as intellectually stimulating reported high levels of productivity in both TOTAL and IFGE4, but not in NFA. Our findings not only highlight how students' perception of their training environment factors in the production of scientific output, our findings also carry important implications for improving mentoring programs in science.

The Japanese academics have high recognition of themselves as the researchers rather than the teachers. This kind of climate developed in the national research universities including "Teikoku Daigaku" in the prewar time and even in the postwar time; it has extended to almost all academics not only in the research universities but also in the non-research universities. This fact was testified clearly in the CAP survey conducted in 2007, in which the Japanese academics' research orientation belonged to the German type. A climate of academics in Japan is different from the counterparts in the USA as shown in the CAP survey, in which the American academics are oriented to research and teaching with a weight of half and half. Given the Japanese academic climate involved in research orientation, the national government offers in recent years the research grants to academics as the category of researcher on the basis of "selection and concentration principle" to the extent that only distinguished researchers in research productivity can be selected. Accordingly, "Kakusa Shakai," or the social difference between the institutions with high productivity and those with low productivity, seems to be increasingly extending recently. The question that how the Japanese government disseminates research outputs to make these outputs be more socially utilized is likely to be not answered adequately for many years because there are few meta-evaluations to assess policy's usefulness. However, such meta-evaluation of policy is expected to be done strictly since 2002 when it was introduced in the context that government policy's contribution to society was functioned substantially.

From a framework of this study, modern society may be explained by a paradigm transformation from ascription to achievement and also from particularism to universalism. According to this hypothesis, Japanese university society has not developed successfully for more than the closed society to the opened society. This paper intends to deal with the Japanese differentiated university stratification, which has been formed among these value orientations by connection of particularism and ascription, with a focus on its effects on the academic productivity including both research and teaching productivity. For example, a closed academic structure with an inbreeding mechanism in tate-shakai (vertical society) has brought about a great deal of effect either positively or negatively on academic system throughout the country. We intend to discuss the reasons behind the declining symptom of academic productivity of the university on the basis of the given framework.

In the prestige economy of higher education, research productivity is highly prized. Previous research indicates, however, a gender gap with respect to research output. This gap is often explained by reference to familial status and responsibilities. In this article, we examine the research productivity gender gap from an international perspective by undertaking a gendered analysis of the Changing Academic Profession Survey. We suggest that family is not, in all cases, operating as a form of negative equity in the prestige economy of higher education. In addition, we argue that an over-reliance on an explanatory framework that positions family-related variables as central to the research productivity gender gap might well be drawing our attention from significant structural and systemic discriminatory practices within the profession.

Chinese and Russian universities are increasingly drawn into center-periphery repositioning, as they compete for symbolic, financial, and intellectual resources locally and globally. However, their strategies on national and institutional linkages differ with regards to the individual scientist's powers in knowledge production. As global hierarchies of knowledge productivity benchmark prestigious publications, and national industries seek access to innovative products in global research and development labs, globally connected talents become essential for elevating local research performance. This article examines the undercurrents of center-periphery repositioning in Russia and China by comparing their research and development funding and performance data, as well as contrasting their global standing with Brazil, India, South Africa, and G7 members. A method of comparative multilayered patterning of mixed data sets is used to reflect on center-periphery dilemmas facing the Chinese and Russian scientists.

Although doctoral mentors recognize the benefits of providing quality advisement and close guidance, those of sharing project management responsibilities with mentees are still not well recognized. We observed that mentees, who have the opportunity to co-manage projects, generate more written output. Here we examine the link between research productivity, doctoral mentoring practices (DMP), and doctoral research experiences (DRE) of mentees in programs in the non-West. Inspired by previous findings that early career productivity is a strong predictor of later productivity, we examine the research productivity of 210 molecular biology doctoral students in selected programs in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. Using principal component (PC) analysis, we derive two sets of PCs: one set from 15 DMP and another set from 16 DRE items. We model research productivity using Poisson and negative-binomial regression models with these sets as predictors. Our findings suggest a need to re-think extant practices and to allocate resources toward professional career development in training future scientists. We contend that doctoral science training must not only be an occasion for future scientists to learn scientific and technical skills, but it must also be the opportunity to experience, to acquire, and to hone research management skills.

This study analyzes the impact of intra-sectoral mobility of academics on research productivity and R&D information exchange dynamics in Japan. The analysis shows intra-sectoral mobility impacting positively both research productivity and information exchange dynamics, but that this effect--except for information exchange with peers based abroad--has a threshold. This result highlights the importance of academic job mobility but also alerts for cases of "overloads of mobility," leading us to argue for some degree of stability in academic careers, supported by policies fostering temporary international mobility spells. We also find that the role of foreign academics in the Japanese higher education is one of national and international gatekeepers being this role shaped by where the doctorate was obtained (Japan vs abroad). Japanese academics that have performed the doctorate abroad are also key international gatekeepers.

This paper is a macro study on higher education R&D and its impact on productivity growth. I measure the social rate of return on higher education R&D in 17 high-income OECD countries using country level data on the percentage of gross expenditure on R&D performed by higher education, business, and government sectors over the period 1981-2006. Empirical results suggest that lagged R&D performed by higher education is positively affecting productivity growth in all specifications. The long-run propensity of productivity growth to R&D performed by the higher education sector is also found to be positive and significant while it is found be insignificant to business R&D. (Contains 13 notes, 3 figures and 8 tables.)

We introduce a game theory model of individual decisions to cooperate by contributing personal resources to group decisions versus by free riding on the contributions of other members. In contrast to most public-goods games that assume group returns are linear in individual contributions, the present model assumes decreasing marginal group production as a function of aggregate individual contributions. This diminishing marginal returns assumption is more realistic and generates starkly different predictions compared to the linear model. One important implication is that, under most conditions, there exist equilibria where some, but not all, members of a group contribute, even with completely self-interested motives. An agent-based simulation confirmed the individual and group advantages of the equilibria in which behavioral asymmetry emerges from a game structure that is a priori perfectly symmetric for all agents (all agents have the same payoff function and action space but take different actions in equilibria). A behavioral experiment demonstrated that cooperators and free riders coexist in a stable manner in groups performing with the nonlinear production function. A collateral result demonstrated that, compared to a dictatorial decision scheme guided by the best member in a group, the majority/plurality decision rules can pool information effectively and produce greater individual net welfare at equilibrium, even if free riding is not sanctioned. This is an original proof that cooperation in ad hoc decision-making groups can be understood in terms of self-interested motivations and that, despite the free-rider problem, majority/plurality decision rules can function robustly as simple, efficient social decision heuristics. (Contains 15 figures, 1 table and 9 footnotes.)

This article deals with the various problems related to the given title from four sections. Section "Social function of the academic research enterprise (ARE)" focuses on three problems: Framework of the research on the ARE; Functions of the graduate school in the ARE; and Centers of learning and Japanese ARE. Section "Structure of ARE" discusses two problems: Structure of social stratification and the structure of ARE in the policy framework for the current ARE. Section "Social condition of ARE" argues over three problems: Social condition of the ARE; The effects of change of national policy on the ARE; and National government policy for the ARE in the postwar period. Section "The impacts of the national government policies on ARE" treats three problems: Trend of the recent national government policy on the ARE; Some unintended effects of the policies; and Discussion of proposals for reform. These discussions lead to concluding remarks.

The present study evaluates the effect of a classroom-based behavioral intervention package to improve Japanese elementary school children's sitting posture in regular classrooms (N = 68). This study uses a multiple-baseline design across two classrooms with a modified repeated reversal within each class. The article defines appropriate sitting posture as behavior composed of four components (feet, buttocks, back, and a whole body). The intervention package includes modeling, correspondence training, prompt, and reinforcement, among others. The authors counted the number of children with appropriate sitting posture in each classroom across all 28 sessions throughout the study. Interobserver agreement of appropriate sitting posture ranged from 80% to 100%. As a result of the intervention, the mean proportion of children with appropriate posture increased from approximately 20% to 90%. In addition, their academic writing productivity increased with the improved sitting posture. Teachers' acceptance of the intervention program proved to be excellent. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

Comparison of a Japanese auto plant and its U.S. affiliate attributed the 10% lower production rate of the latter to less-integrated and weaker troubleshooting skills and lower maintenance skills. Lack of integrated skills in the U.S. was attributed to use of a job-bid system for transfers; integrated skill formation was controlled by supervisors in Japan. (Contains 52 references.) (SK)

Education, like other public services, is now characterized by a range of structural realignments, new purchaser-provider relationships, and new management/political coalitions. The school-effectiveness movement exemplifies the new managerialism in education, part of an ideological and technological process to industrialize school productivity. (Contains 53 references.) (MLH)