Dear colleagues,

At today's BKC Monday Association, one of those in attendance introduced a student's anxious thoughts. "The university's stance to us is that fish, once they are hooked, do not need to be fed". It is not just students. The current Board of Trustee's basic stance towards each and every member of Ritsumeikan can be boiled down to "hooked fish do not need to be fed". It is also a concern that this same attitude exists vis-a-vis foreign students.

At the 55th Meeting of the Council for Science and Technology Policy held on 23 May, the Council Chairman, Prime Minister Koizumi, referred to "Oita's Ritsumeikan" [APU] as a university open to the outside world (see http://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/siryo/haihu56/siryo6.pdf). International exchange activities provide an opportunity to generate good will towards Japan, but at the same time serve to produce hatred and contempt for Japan. Non-Japanese who come to learn about Japan through international activities that have no true interest in international exchange return to their native countries with a distrust, contempt and hatred of Japan. If Ritsumeikan continues to view APU as an apparatus to promote the expansion and reform of the Ritsumeikan Academy, Ritsumeikan will commit the offense of spreading, at a grass-roots level, hatred of Japan throughout the world.

In order to avoid this, the Trust needs to grant at least the same amount of authority to the academic sector of APU as exists at Ritsumeikan University, guarantee the status of faculty [at APU] and improve their treatment, put together the same generous scholarship funds that existed when APU was first opened, and make it possible for APU students together with Japanese students to settle down and study to their heart's content in an education and research environment which is of a high quality and which is ideal, and which will enable them to return to their native countries with good will to Japan and with gratitude and respect for Japan. This could be realized simply, if only the Board of Directors made the decision, given the current state of Ritsumeikan's abundant capital surpluses.

Not only in APU, but also in the Ritsumeikan Academy as a whole, there are many foreign nationals who are involved in teaching. It is very important that these individuals have a good impression of Ritsumeikan. However, it seems that there are not a few faculty who have been forced to leave Ritsumeikan with bad impressions and with feelings of distrust and an emotion close to hatred. This is regrettable. I believe that, if Ritsumeikan is implanting, in researchers from overseas, negative feelings not only for Ritsumeikan but for Japan, then it is committing a sin which is not easy to forgive. Personal affairs policies that seem to have no awareness that Ritsumeikan faces these grave problems prove that the current managers of Ritsumeikan have no true interest in international exchange.

Last year, a lecturer at APU from overseas was fired. On 10 May, the Kyoto Local Court handed down a decision that found for that individual's application for a provisional disposition to preserve his or her employment status. The court decision found that "given the above, the reasons given for dismissal by Ritsumeikan cannot be recognized. It must be said that the dismissal was an abuse of the right of dismissal and is invalid". Given that the court's investigation of this type of case is so strict, the Ritsumeikan Academy has therefore fired a foreign lecture for reasons that are inconsistent with social commonsense. Nevertheless, it seems that Ritsumeikan has decided not to settle, but to appeal the court decision.

I have received an e-mail that overviews not only these problems but other issues with the current management, and warns that in the near future a collapse is inevitable. I have received permission to reprint this e-mail, and sections are quoted below.

The Ritsumeikan Academy has been attacked by an incurable "reform disease" to which it is succumbing. I pray that a day will come when Ritsumeikan takes a step towards becoming a dignified institution that follows commonsense, and that a spontaneous recovery rather than a surgical procedure will enable Ritsumeikan to reclaim its vitality. A spontaneous recovery will involve a process similar to the abdication by the current "emperor" in favour of a more virtuous successor.

The e-mail is cited below.

Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 01:39:15 +0900

The APU Problem will probably not become a trigger that leads to the collapse of the current regime [running Ristumeikan]. The Kyoto Local Court has already found that the decision to fire a foreign lecturer last year was an "abuse of the right of dismissal". However, given that faculty especially at Kinugasa and BKC are not fully aware of the facts, it can be said that there is a relatively low interest [in the APU problem].

Rather, the direct trigger will be provided by the current state of affairs here at Ritsumeikan University. The current state of affairs includes the following. The cut in wages and the wage differential between tenured and non-tenured faculty that splits labour at Ritsumeikan and that produces a chronic decline in the will to work; the accumulation of the dissatisfaction of faculty from ages 55 to 65 with the decision to implement the specially appointed professor system; the tendency for the same members of faculty and administrative staff to be involved in crucial internal matters such as the "Academy Constitution"; the never-ending stream of illogical documents flowing from the Board of Trustees; and anxieties about the blind rush to expand Ritsumeikan that ignores the voice of Ritsumeikan faculties. Furthermore, a backlash from ex-members of the Board of Trustees such as Professor Ashida has emerged. At what stage will the demands for a dignified university management and objections about the Board of Trustee's monopoly and domination of the academy, despite the fact that the Board does not own the academy, be enough to trigger the flames of discontent?

With regards to the Beppu problem [APU problem], the Board of Trustees has made a serious blunder. Indeed, they give the appearance of moths jumping into a fire. If the Board of Trustees had kept their mouths shut, there would not be much interest in APU among members of the academy (this is especially true with the academic faculty. Administration staff face the possibility of being transferred to APU, and so, relatively speaking, are aware of the dangerous extent of the APU problem). However, in replying to the Union during the Spring Offensive, the Board of Trustees proposed that we learn from the APU experience [speaking about APU in a positive way]. That has led to an increase in interest in the true state of affairs in APU. (...) If the Union begins a factual investigation of APU and opens public hearings to listen to faculty and administrative staff from APU, it will merely lead even more people to realize that APU has withered and rotted on the vine.

At this stage, the dark side of APU, the aspects of APU that have been concealed, have started to surface - such as the large number of scandals (many of the incidents in which faculty members have [been fired or] in effect been fired [forced to resign] are the responsibility of the faculty members in question, but what about the responsibility of those who employed them?), the court decision in favour of the foreign member of faculty who was fired, the large number of administration staff who are leaving APU (in recent years, this is also an increasing trend in Ritsumeikan University), the frequent occurrence of suicide and psychological breakdowns among students and administrative staff, etc. etc. In addition to these problems, a new court case has been initiated by yet another member of faculty (a full-time lecturer) who was forced out of APU in March this year. As these problems become more widely known, an essential discussion will surely start about how APU, a university beyond saving, can possibly be used as a model for Ritsumeikan's future, or as a partner for various activities with Ristumeikan. (...)

End of citation