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Japanese Philanthropy: A One-way Street?
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18946 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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2 / 1991 |
2,673 Words |
| Author
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Christian Herbst
Christian Herbst is a free-lance journalist based in
Washington, D.C. |
Japanese investment in American universities and basic research laboratories, often in the form of philanthropic donations, is growing rapidly. This investment has triggered a heated debate over whether it provides badly needed support for American education and research, or is contributing to America's decline by allowing Japanese firms to exploit one of the few American sectors that has managed to maintain a commanding lead over its foreign--especially Japanese--counterparts.
This year, Japanese philanthropic investment in the United States totaled approximately $300 million, about half of which was given to educational or research organizations according to Craig Smith, author of a forthcoming book on corporate philanthropy in the United States, and editor and publisher of the Corporate Philanthropy Report newsletter (Seattle). Smith estimates that the total amount of Japanese philanthropy in the United States has been increasing by about 30 percent per year during the last five years.
Japanese firms send visiting scientists to American university laboratories, join university industrial liaison programs, sponsor on-campus research, and provide funding for university facilities, programs, and endowments. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has 22 chairs endowed by Japanese corporations, each valued at from $750,000 to $2 million.
MIT's Sloan School of Management is one of the biggest and earliest recipients of Japanese donations. It has five endowed chairs worth $8 million. Stanford University's Business School and Columbia University each have three such chairs, and Harvard's Business School has two chairs.
By participating in America's educational and research institutions, Japan has helped compensate for some weaknesses in its own institutions. Although Japan is famous for the quality of its applied research, the reputation of its university systems and the overall capability of its basic research facilities have never caught up with those of the United States. For while Japan's private industry emphasizes development, basic research at Japanese universities is impaired by relatively weak ties between academia and industry, poor funding, regulations imposed by education bureaucrats, and a rigid academic hierarchy that keeps the most talented researchers in subservient positions.
Critics of Japanese investment worry that Japanese firms are being given access to findings from American research that they can apply
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