Schools May Branch to Japan

WASHINGTON--Administrators representing 90 U.S. universities will weigh offers of land, buildings and other enticements next week as Japanese recruiters mount a high-gear campaign to attract American campuses.

Officials from 27 Japanese cities of all sizes are hoping that their offers will prove irresistible to the 30 administrators scheduled to leave next Thursday for a two-week tour.

"These are the Nashvilles and the Knoxvilles and the Indianapolises of Japan. They're trying to attract big-time universities," said Pat Riordan, a spokesman for the Florida state university system, which is sending a vice chancellor on the trip.

Japanese higher education "is not held in particularly high esteem elsewhere in the world. It could probably benefit from some help," said Assistant Secretary of Education Chester E. Finn Jr., who supervised a Department of Education study of Japanese education.

"I'm not surprised or displeased that they are seeking to benefit from contacts with U.S. higher education." Finn added.

The trip was organized by the U.S.-Japan Committee for Promoting Trade Expansion, a group of American and Japanese legislators working to widen export opportunities for small and medium-sized U.S. businesses.

The Japanese initiated the university recruitment project, according to Andie King, chief legislative assistant to Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.). Gephardt was instrumental in forming the committee and has been discussing the project with college officials since last summer, King said.

While U.S. colleges have opened branch campuses all over Europe and Asia, only Temple University, with a branch in Tokyo, has ventured into Japan, she said. "Japan just hasn't been a country that we've thought about in terms of establishing a permanent American presence," King said.

The university project could be a boon to Japan, which is interested in learning more about U.S. higher education techniques. But proponents, calling the effort the first of its kind, believe it will be of equal value to the United States in the long-term.