Sorimachi
People are looking for more practical contributions from a university
and there are some who suggest that we should have law schools at the
graduate level. This is a reflection of public perception that there is a
system-wide problem in the current university educational process.
Professor Tezuka, you are known to be active in promoting reform at Chiba
University. What is its current thrust?.
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Tezuka
We have had a graduate level degree program since the pre-World War I
era, which is based upon what we call the professional chair system,
providing higher study programs by key professors. However, there is a wide
recognition that this system does not meet the increasing demand for more
practical training in higher education. In the study of law and economics,
the traditional chair system is not capable of covering the extent of study
required. In the study of law, we see specific problems in providing courses
in civil and criminal law. The current advocacy for new graduate schools is
clearly a reflection of these problems, which we now recognize as
attributable to Japan's traditional university system.
Sorimachi
Would you give us some specific cases?
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Tezuka
Take the civil code, for example. The National Diet has passed a
guardianship law. The administration of this law can't be handled within our
traditional civil law framework. It requires a more comprehensive review
of the entire system. This is one area we have not been able to handle since
we switched to a democratic system in the post-war era. In the domain of
criminal law, we see an increasing number of economic crimes rather than
traditional anti-social and immoral crimes, that is, traditional criminal
violations. These new criminal violations may need to be recognized as
matters belonging to a third sector.
Sorimachi
Our society has gone through fundamental changes from the era when the
traditional legal system was formulated, and these changes do not represent
continuity from the old system to the new, but is rather a categorical
quantum jump into a new paradigm. Is your advocacy of reform based upon such recognition?
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Tezuka
The problem is most visible in the civil code. The post war inheritance
law sets the inheritance tax rate on a per capita basis. Yet changes in our
society appear to require fundamental changes in this approach. Our
inheritance system is not based upon the last will written. But if the
family is no longer undertaking mandatory responsibility for its elderly
members, the assets of an elderly family member may have to be assigned to
other parties, based upon a written will as we see in Europe and America.
This will require tax system reform as well. Japanese gift taxes are
comparatively higher than per capita based inheritance taxes. In Europe and
America, we see cases where parents assign their assets to those children
who assume the responsibility of caring for them, on contractual basis,
during the remainder of their lives.
So in dealing with this movement toward change, legal reform must be
comprehensive involving tax laws, the civil code and other aspects of the
law. A university education should be able to accommodate such new
developments in the study of law. The traditional study of law is very
dependent on the study of the classics. And while there is nothing wrong
with the classics, Japanese legal education has been too rigidly limited by
this classic approach.
Sorimachi
Are you saying that our current university educational system is too
inflexible,
and not suited to accommodating societal change?
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Tezuka
I am scheduled to go to Europe soon, visiting Vienna, Munich and Berlin
on
business. I would have to submit an entirely new request for funds if I
change any part of my itinerary. This is an example of the tremendous
bureaucratic demands made by the national universities.
Sorimachi
Are you looking for a speedier and more flexible system?
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Tezuka
There is a talk of status as an independent administrative legal
entity. This is one direction. When we try to accomplish something new, we
need to incorporate vigorous input from the private sector.
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