OPERATIONS RESEARCH EDUCATION IN JAPAN.

This article focuses on operations research (OR) education in Japan. Compulsory education coverage in Japan is very high compared to other countries in the world. Presently, GO per cent of the population almost 100% of which come through junior high school goes to high school and about 20% of the same age group to college. There are approximately 6 to 7 thousand persons somehow associated with Operations Research in practice. All of them may not be specifically assigned to OR activity as such but they at least apply OR way of thinking in their jobs. It seems that there are mainly three ways of acquiring OR skills in an organization. One is to hire students who have trained in applied mathematics, management sciences or OR. The main supplier of OR skills to firms in Japan up to about 1960 has been the professional associations who provided with continuing education.