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	<< Back "DAWN" Newsletter of The DAWN CENTER Another Side of the Globalisation of Education: Japanese female postgraduate students studying at the University of London Akiko Nishio According to the UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1998, 62,284 Japanese students were studying abroad at higher educational levels in the mid 1990s: 73% of them in the US, 14% in China, and 7% in the UK. Focussing on Japanese students studying at British higher educational institutions,(1) the number of students who entered those institutions in 1997 was 5,332, 62% female students. The number of Japanese students who entered British postgraduate schools in the same year was 2,499, 54% female students. The proportion of Japanese female students indicates that Japan is one of a few countries and areas, including Taiwan, Thailand, and Israel, which sends more female students than male students to British postgraduate schools. My PhD thesis entitled Issues Facing Japanese Postgraduate Students Studying at the University of London with Special Reference to Gender explored 1) educational issues and 2) personal issues that students encounter, 3) the reasons why they decided to study abroad, and 4) their thoughts on their post-course period with special reference to gender, based on interviews and questionnaires with 52 Japanese postgraduate students (25 female, 27 male) studying at the University of London. The results showed that both women and men were concerned about the lack of language proficiency, despite the fact that they had received high scores in language proficiency examinations such as TOEFL and IELTS. This concern was often caused by the strong desire to obtain the same language proficiency as native English speakers; the desire was endless. Except for this issue, students tended to fall into separate groups based on their sex, educational level, marital status, and occupation. In addition, female students reported concern about a wider variety of issues in more complicated ways. The issues of primary concern among female students, especially among single female students with financial support from their parents, were whether they would marry and their parents' continued well-being and happiness. Moreover, the average age of female informants was 32 (that of males was 31), and the concern about age strengthened worries about whether they would find a job and whether they would be able to have children. Examination of the reasons why female students decided to study abroad at the postgraduate level indicated several reasons. Some female students had decided to do so primarily because they wanted to realize their dream of studying abroad. Other female students had no plan to do so at first, but had 'drifted toward' postgraduate study after discovering a strong desire to study more or stay longer while studying at a language school or experiencing an exchange programme. Furthermore, some were wives and daughters enjoying 'me-too' study abroad opportunities; they had originally gone to Britain to accompany a husband or father who was sent to work at their company's London branch or to study with financial support by a government ministry. Seeing these female students, it is clear that study abroad, while not as accessible as traveling abroad, is viewed as casual and attainable among Japanese women recently. The position of women starkly contrasted with that of Japanese men; being a man, many of them were expected to be financially independent as soon as they graduated and maintain their occupational status, not only for themselves but also for their (future) family. This gender difference is also seen in the fact that more Japanese female students than Japanese male students enter British higher educational institutions. Gender difference was also seen in thoughts on their post-course period. Only a few female students, including a female student studying for an MBA, who had a keen interest in career advancement, expressed a strong desire to be financially independent; the number of students seeking financial independence was as small as that who hoped to be housewives. Moreover, a few female students were 'unsure' about what they hoped to do after completing their courses. In contrast, most male students were determined to make full use of the experience of studying abroad at the postgraduate level in job-hunting and clear about what kind of job they wanted to get, regardless of whether they had worked before or not. The reason female students tended to have more concerns than male students was strongly related to indeterminateness as to why they were studying abroad at the postgraduate level and vagueness as to what they hoped to do after completing their courses. In other words, compared with many male students, who were indifferent to any other things except obtaining as good a job as possible after completing their courses, many female students were unclear about their post-course period. In general, they tended to be concerned about various issues such as marriage, well-being and happiness of their parents, and age. The majority of working women today, including highly educated women, are on the general employment track which requires them to assist their colleagues by typing and photocopying documents in the Japanese labour market. If women choose to work on the career track, where the majority of the workers are men, they are required to do the same jobs as male workers, including accepting transfers. Those women are also expected to work as long as male workers, working overtime almost every day. If their husbands are in positions where they must work long hours every day, wives are automatically expected to do housework and take care of children regardless whether they work or not. They hear, as the reason for this, comments like 'because you are a woman' and 'because you work less than I do/your husband'. One out of three Japanese working women has no wish to be promoted.(2) This high proportion implies that the Japanese labour market is unattractive to Japanese women. There are still women who look for means to survive in such a hard labour market for women, although the number is small. There are also female students who are desperate to make use of their experience of studying abroad at postgraduate level, although, again, the number is small. However, for many women, studying abroad or completing postgraduate study allows them to realize their full potential, which can be extremely difficult to do in the Japanese labour market. That is to say, for those women, studying abroad allows them to get a momentary sense of achievement and is not an investment in career advancement. Such a tendency is also indicated by the fact that female students tend not to take subjects such as business studies or engineering which are relatively easy to relate to career, but to take linguistics and history, which are primarily based on their interests and are more difficult to make use of in a career. It has been already pointed out that the increase in the proportion of female students who go on to higher educational institutions in Japan has not necessarily brought about the advancement of female workers in the labour market. However, the same remark applies to the increase in the number of female students who study abroad at postgraduate level. The working environment in the Japanese labour market needs to be improved for female workers to feel comfortable working. At the same time, female workers must strive to survive in the current labour market. Without both, the increase in the number of highly educated women and the globalisation of women's education will do little to advance female workers in the labour market. Notes (1) The data referred to here were supplied by Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) by agreement with the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). (2) According to Inoue and Ehara (1999), 35.4% of female workers had no wish to be promoted in 1995. The main reason was that they were afraid of being in a more responsible position. See p.115. References Nishio, A. (2001) Issues Facing Japanese Postgraduate Students Studying at the University of London with Special Reference to Gender, PhD thesis, Institute of Education, University of London, London: University of London. Inoue, E. and Ehara, Y. (1999) Josei no Deita Bukku:Women's Data Book, 3rd edition, Tokyo: Yuhikaku. United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (1998) The UNESCO Statistical Yearbook 1998, Paris, and Lanham MD: UNESCO Publishing and Bernan Press. Page Top Copyright (C) 2007 DawnCenter. All Rights Reserved.