Accreditation Systems in Japan and the United States: A Comparative Perspective on Governmental Involvement

Overview & Synopsis

The United States is not the only country that has been shocked by "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," the report released in September 2006 by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, also known as the Spellings Commission. What the report emphasizes is accountability: the outcomes of higher education or student learning in which taxpayers' money is being spent. It also recommends that accrediting organizations make their standards of accreditation more outcome oriented. Japan was one of the countries jolted by this report. Consequently the Japanese higher education community has paid significant attention to U.S. higher education since the report was published, for at least two reasons: (1) the Japanese accreditation system was modeled after the U.S. system in many aspects, but (2) it is designed to work under a greater extent of governmental monitoring. In this article, the author compares the higher education accreditation system in Japan with the American system, focusing on the extent of government involvement in the processes in each nation.