Management of Technology Education in Japan: The Current Trends and Future Possibilities

ABSTRACT

In recent years, an awareness for the need of management of technology (MOT) education has been growing in Japan. Consequently, support for MOT education has been taken up by the national government, and this has in turn led to the increase of MOT courses within universities.

The surveys of private businesses conducted for this report have shown that, as a general direction, MOT education is now targeted more toward managers than young technicians and that rather than being given to selected workers, it is now being made available to a wide range of employees. But most importantly, instead of sending employees to outside institutions such as universities, companies now emphasize education within the company, where trainees can combine their classroom education with practical application. MBA course training is not given very much credit by Japanese companies because of the lack relevance that the learning content has to the company's activities. Thus the focus of this in-house MOT training is less on the entrepreneurship and corporate alliance aspect of management, and more on the ability to solve the near-at-hand issues of technology management within the company.

Such trends on the part of the corporation show that they expect little from universities and external MOT education facilities. It would indeed be more effective if national support programs shifted their focus from university oriented support to corporation-centered funding. Yet, as there are aspects of MOT education that cannot be implemented by corporations alone, universities must not be excluded in the establishment of a nation-wide MOT education system.

The MOT model for management training, differing from the MBA-model in its emphasis on the?@practical application of knowledge, harbors the potential to become the new system of management training for Japan. Realizing this potential will be of critical importance in sharpening Japan's competitive edge.