Doctoral Education in Japan: Historical Development and Challenges

Doctoral education was institutionalized in Japan at Teikoku Daigaku in 1886 by importing the model directly from the USA, although the German model had a great impact both in the prewar and postwar period. The US model, imported as part of a formal higher education system during the postwar period, has only recently been successfully established at the doctoral level, especially in the humanities and social sciences. In this paper, the author highlights some important issues related to doctoral education in Japan. First, doctoral educatin as well as graduate school was incorporated into a Japanese university in the nineteenth century, which is relatively early compared to other countries. Nevertheless, there was little development during the prewar period due to the Japanese higher education climate. Second, the number of doctoral students and doctoral degree grantees has been declining in recent years because of economic stagnation. This is likely to affect the future social and scientific development of Japan as academic productivity declines in relation to that of other countries.