Divs-poole

JAPANESE TERTIARY EDUCATION 

The president, for example, practices tsukiai in a different manner than when his 

position was merely that of chair or faculty senate member. He is cognizant of his 

position within the organizational structure of the university and, because of this 

responsibility, is prone to wield tsukiai to control or punish others, often through 

exclusion. Graham (2003) makes exactly the same observation of management 

practices at a Japanese insurance company.  

Mr. Taguchi, a fun-loving professor who enjoys golf, has always been part of 

Mr. Asakubo’s circle of tsukiai friends at EUC, and the two have spent many hours 

drinking and golfing together during the more than fifteen years of their working 

relationship at EUC. Before he was elected president, Mr. Asakubo often joked to 

me in an obviously friendly way about Mr. Taguchi being a “goof off.” In fact, not 

only was Taguchi the person who first introduced me to Mr. Asakubo at an after 

school eating and drinking event organized by Mr. Taguchi, but he explicitly 

expressed to me and others his support of Mr. Asakubo as the future president of 

EUC, prior to the faculty senate elections. He expressed excitement about the 

prospect of an anticipated “insider” position with his friend, Mr. Asakubo, as the 

leader of EUC.  

Once he became president, however, Mr. Asakubo has since used this tsukiai 

that exists between himself and Taguchi as a form of control, and in some cases 

punishment. Taguchi is viewed by President Asakubo as an irresponsible faculty 

member who cannot be trusted to act appropriately as a professor (e.g., to show up 

at scheduled lectures on time), as an administrator (e.g., to fulfill his 

responsibilities as the chair of a committee), or as a researcher (e.g., to publish the 

results of research projects for which has received funding). Consequently, Mr. 

Asakubo has excluded Mr. Taguchi from his “inner circle” and does not invite him 

to drink with other “young” faculty members. The change in the nature of their 

relationship has been marked. Though they still joke and are friendly in public, the 

president is intent on his attempt to control Taguchi through tsukiai, by 

withholding offers of sharing information and, thus, power. Taguchi’s visibility 

within the organizational structure has shrunken considerably; his influence has 

been controlled through sanctions. Mr. Asakubo’s role as president has 

significantly affected his tsukiai, a crucial part of his job.  

Tsukiai has the crucial function of transmitting of the tacit, and especially 

centripetal, knowledge of the organization and its rituals. This insider knowledge is 

directly related to both time spent employed at the university, and also, perhaps 

even more importantly, to the time spent in building strong informal networks of 

knowledge transmission. The lack of such local knowledge and influence, prized 

cultural capital at EUC, can and does directly, and usually adversely, affect a 

professor’s performance at work. Yamagiwa-sensei, for example, worked in 

industry and government before becoming an academic and thus has a huge store 

of social capital external to EUC. She has not taken much interest in 

complementing this with internal networks and knowledge since beginning work at 

EUC, so she has been unable to effectively express her opinion on work-related 

matters, something that might normally be accomplished through tsukiai, for 

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CHAPTER 1 

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example. Consequently, her only resort has been through open and public conflict 

with the president and Endō-sensei over the design and implementation of one of 

the management courses, normally a means not preferred in Japanese 

organizations. “Japanese do not savor open confrontation and animosity, especially 

in groups of colleagues who must continue to work together … (Graham 2003, p. 

130).” Graham  has made the insightful comment that typical “Japanese practices” 

in organizational settings are often a product of the organization itself, and so it is a 

mistake when observers consider such cultural practices in isolation, as they 

sometimes do. I realized this firsthand at EUC. The surface impression I first had 

during my participant observation of the general dedication of a few individuals 

soon transformed into an almost palpable tension in the work environment the 

more personally involved I became in the “local” culture—a pressure to gain in 

social capital by investing time and energy in administration and tsukiai and the 

parallel risk of losing important links to knowledge and network by not investing 

in administration and tsukiai. The recognition of this tension is perhaps missed by 

observers whose careers are not tied to their places of observation, unlike either 

Fiona Graham or myself. 

So, indeed, although on the surface occasions of tsukiai can appear to be light-

hearted events of after-hour leisure, as Graham points out, they “are not social 

occasions in the western sense of the word, but rather an indispensable part of 

work” (Graham 2003, p. 129). But “meetings” in a Japanese organization of course 

appear like work to an outside observer, and these events are also, of course, an in-

dispensable part of work. What may be surprising, however are the often late hours 

of these meetings, since at EUC there exists a “… rather diffuse definition of work-

ing hours that characterizes many Japanese organizations” (Ben-Ari 1997b, p. 84). 

For many EUC kyōju, meetings and other administrative activities are a defining 

part of their work. Though in the professors’ room complaints are heard quite 

frequently in reference to administrative work, in actuality the administrative 

duties are taken quite seriously by a large proportion of professors. Committee and 

labor union activities, department meetings, general and department faculty 

meetings, writing entrance examinations, interviewing prospective students, 

proctoring both entrance examinations (five per year) as well as midterm and final 

examinations for all courses, add up to a considerable amount of administrative 

work during the year. Committee work is by far the most time consuming. There 

are numerous committees at EUC including: president’s council, academic affairs, 

student affairs, admissions, careers/placement, library, international programs, 

extension program, and student teaching. The president’s council is the most 

powerful, with the academic affairs, student affairs, and admissions also deemed as 

important committees to chair. In fact, I was once told that the local EUC culture 

holds that “the [political] path to the university presidency must be pass through 

the chairmanship of the academic affairs and student affairs committees.” 

For this reason the president takes great care and deliberates with confidants at 

length during bouts of tsukiai before deciding on the personnel assignments, which 

are obligatory. He occasionally rotates the positions, depending on both personal 

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