BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 2, 2000 ISSUE
COVER STORY Building a World-Class Business School in Japan (int'l edition) Hitotsubashi University is the first state-run school in Japan to offer an MBA--and the only one to require work experience When it comes to educating its most promising young executives, Japan has always farmed them out to the likes of Harvard, Wharton, or the University of California at Berkeley. For Hirotaka Takeuchi and other business professors in Japan, that's something of a national disgrace. ''Why doesn't Japan, the world's second biggest economy, have a world-class business school?'' he wondered. As a result of his question, it soon might. The brand-new Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy plans to start classes at Hitotsubashi University on Oct. 2. A satellite of the venerated 125-year-old institution, the new business school has made up its class of 2002 with about 50 students from Japan, other parts of Asia, the U.S., and even Africa. Approved by the arch-conservative Education Ministry, the program will instruct students in English and Japanese. It's the first state-run school to offer an MBA, and the only institution in Japan to require work experience as a qualification for entry. Takeuchi, the school's dean, has even set up an ''intellectual alliance'' with two decidedly gaijin players, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Andersen Consulting. The companies will contribute technology, databases, and brokerage research to the program and help line up guest lecturers. They aren't directly funding the school, but both hope for a payoff in terms of a more qualified labor pool to choose from. TALENT WAR. When the university announced its plans to link up with U.S. financial giants earlier this year, some alumni cringed. Hitotsubashi has long focused on theory-based economics, and its alums include Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami and Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Hiroshi Okuda. Many questioned the need to bring in foreigners in a culture where such collaboration is unusual. But Takeuchi wanted access to data, case studies, and other hands-on information about new technology that just wasn't available in Japan. ''We were so far behind and just didn't have the resources,'' he says. Now, Takeuchi thinks the program can compete for top students in Asia and the West. More broadly, he thinks there's a need for Japan to keep students at home if Japanese companies are to make the best of a shrinking labor pool. ''The war for talent is raging, and it's clear Japan is losing,'' he says. The school does have advantages in both luring foreign students and keeping ambitious Japanese at home. As a state-owned and heavily subsidized university, Hitotsubashi's business program costs just $4,500 a year, compared with $20,000 for a more theoretical degree at private Keio University--and a whopping $28,500 at Harvard Business School. This meshing of East and West was the deciding factor for Mia Kimura, a 27-year-old Japanese American who considered schools in the U.S., but opted for Hitotsubashi. ''It's perfectly suited to me,'' she says, and a bargain to boot. On top of that, Hitotsubashi's faculty boasts professors with real work experience, a rarity in Japan. They include Norihiko Shimizu, a 20-year veteran of the Boston Consulting Group, and ex-Merrill Lynch & Co. investment banker Sherman Abe. The faculty's contacts with the business world are a plus, too, when it comes to landing students jobs. So is the face time with executives at Morgan and Andersen. For students, though, the program isn't just a schmoozefest. Those used to the leisurely pace of Japan's undergrad programs will be in for a shock. A decade ago, companies wanted schools to turn out ''soft white cloth'' grads upon whom ''they could make an imprint,'' notes Takeuchi. But now, problem-solving, creativity, and special expertise increasingly are in demand. Students will be encouraged to develop business plans that will be vetted in student competitions. ''Harvard is tough, but ours is going to be tougher,'' says Takeuchi, who taught at Harvard in the '70s. Rigor, of course, is what a Morgan or Andersen expects from new hires. And Japanese students have waited a long time to have the chance to get it. If this unusual cohabitation between Western business and an educational icon works out, Japan's best and brightest may no longer have to wing across the Pacific for a top-flight MBA. By Brian Bremner in Tokyo _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The Best B-Schools Table of Contents The Best B-Schools COVER IMAGE: The Best B-Schools TABLE: How the Report Cards Get Graded It's a Whole New B-Game A Global Report Card Building a World-Class Business School in Japan (int'l edition) INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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