Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop Book

Ivan Hall's muckraking book Cartels Of The Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop may have been written in 1998, but it is still valid today in many respects. Hall looks at three areas: academia, law, and journalism. I have the most experience with academia and can attest that little progress has been made in the last 14 years. Hall cites that professor are given one to three year contracts, which is still true at many institutions. Some progress has been made in this regard since there are now four year contracts renewable once (this is the one I am on). And there is tenure available for foreigners, but only a small percentage of professors are tenured. Some schools are proactively trying to woo foreign students as the university age pool of domestic students shrinks yearly, some administers are actively trying to bring in foreign students. In fact this year Tokyo University stated that within five years they will switch to a western semester system in order to make it easier for foreign students to study at their university. It is not clear what effect this will have on other universities, I suspect little since Tokyo University has always been an exception. The domestic job market prefers to hire new employees at the beginning of the fiscal year,which is April in Japan. It is safe to say that almost all of the innovative research related to commerce takes place in closed environments of the large corporations that support them through their own research and development plans rather than in open exchanges in the universities.

The world of journalism is an area I am less familiar with, however with a little research I have found that little has changed. This article from the NY Times in 2009 shows that the press clubs continue to exist and parcel out information in an unfair manner. Japan is known for having a toothless press corps with little investigative or muckraking journalism taking place in an industry where access is everything. This results in an insular back scratching between journalists and their sources.

The legal world is somewhat more accessible to me since I worked in the law department teaching English at a mid-tier university for five years. In 2004 they implemented a new system that would require bar applicants graduate level law school law school degrees in 2006. With this new law school system came a new bar exam, with a 40-50% passage rate which is capped by a numerical quota. Applicants are now limited to taking the exam three times in a five year period. Despite the much higher bar passage rate with the new exam, due to the quotas, approximately half of Japanese law school graduates will never be admitted to practice. The new system also reduced the apprenticeship period at the Legal Research and Training Institute to one year. Therefore, even though there has been "some" change there are gatekeepers to maintaining a legal elite. In 2009 a lay jury system was implemented but it has been seen as toothless since judges have a habit of over turning decisions by the lay jury. Judges are regularly racist and sexist in custody disputes giving sole legal custody to the Japanese parent in mixed marriages almost 100% of the time. (There is no joint custody so many children never see the other parent again). Needles to say there needs to be major reforms in their legal system that has a 90% conviction rate and countless human rights abuses.

In the conclusion, Hall makes some suggestions to change this system of the cartels of the mind: 1) Gaiatsu-united foreign pressure to provide equal access 2) Severing direct control of higher education from Monbusho (The Ministry of Education) 3) U.S. Friendship groups should deal with lack of reciprocity 4) American should take compensatory measure as a "countervailing power" 5) Recognition and open debate among those in the transpacific dialogue about manipulative tactics of veiling and intimidation 6) The U.S. should demand a larger Japanese military contribution to the American strategic position in Est Asia as a substitute for the economic and social opening of Japan. I think that political economic realities continue to trump all of these positions that have allowed the cartels of the mind to continue to thrive.