Recently, there has been a lot of talk about a direct route from Japanese high schools to American universities.
It is likely influenced by university rankings produced in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The rankings consistently show Japanese universities to be too low in comparison.
It's natural to feel the desire to go to American universities when looking at such rankings.
By the way, both Cornell University and New York University, where I graduated from, are ranked higher than the University of Tokyo.
There are other reasons as well.
Many Japanese who have left Japan to continue their research in the United States have received Nobel Prizes.
However, if you look at the educational background and career of these Nobel laureates, they have studied at Japanese universities and graduate schools until they became researchers.
When you are born in Japan and Japanese is your native language, it is overwhelmingly efficient to acquire information in Japanese.
Therefore, even Nobel laureates start their studies and research in Japan up to the foundational stage. It's a matter of course.
Then, they take the step of going to the United States for advanced research.
Perhaps it's because of this step that they were able to reach the Nobel Prize.
For Japanese who have grown up with Japanese as their native language, entering an American university from the undergraduate level is a bit of a challenge.
Competing at the undergraduate level with native English-speaking geniuses and talented individuals in top-tier American universities is an overwhelming disadvantage.
Especially in the case of the United States, if your undergraduate grades are poor, you won't be able to enter a top-tier graduate school.
In the worst case, you'll end up as a "graduate of a low-performing undergraduate program."
In that situation, becoming a researcher would be nothing more than a pipe dream.
When Japanese students enter American universities from Japanese high schools, if their GPA (grade point average) in Japan is outstanding and they excel in extracurricular activities, there is a chance to be admitted to a top-tier American university.
However, it is difficult for Japanese people whose native language is Japanese to achieve a high GPA in American universities with just ordinary effort.
Even if they manage to achieve it, it can be considered highly inefficient and a waste of time, money, and energy.
If, after World War II, the United States had forcefully changed Japan's native language to English, it would be incredibly regrettable.
Perhaps the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University would have been regulars in the top ten of world university rankings.
Maybe Japan's economy would have continued to rise, and it might have truly become "Japan as Number One."
It seems to be the fate of Japanese people, that "it's just English, but it is English."
