„Der Zugang zu einer renommierten Universität in Japan bedeutet nicht, ein Genie zu sein“ – heute nimmt etwa die Hälfte der Universitätsstudenten alternative Auswahlverfahren und „Empfehlungen“ ihrer High Schools auf, anstatt die härteren allgemeinen Aufnahmeprüfungen zu absolvieren

Universities here (at least in the humanities) are a joke anyways. When I told my Japanese friend that my student insurance gives me $800 to spend on psychotherapy, he said “why would you need counseling?? University is like a vacation.” 

Once you get in, it’s easy sailing. In my graduate research, I have to read a lot of papers written by Japanese academics and good god, the ones that never studied abroad don’t have a single original idea in their skulls. Most of them just summarize everything that has already been said in the field without actually contributing an original thesis of their own. I’ve seen better papers from high schoolers in the IB Programme. 

Academics here are too scared to step a toe out of line, and it shows in the quality of research (again, I speak only for the humanities)