An analysis of Japan’s 52-year ban on new veterinary schools, examining the Kake issue as a symbol of entrenched regulatory resistance and distorted policy debate.

A nation that blocks new veterinary schools for 52 years is not protecting quality—it is protecting vested interests.

2017-07-13

The latest issue of the monthly magazine Voice, released on the 10th, contains essays that should be read by all Japanese citizens and people around the world.

All emphasis except the headlines is mine.

Return to orthodox policy debate.
Correcting distorted arguments from the Kake issue to the consumption tax.
By Heizo Takenaka.

Policy debates in the Diet and parts of the media have reached a level that makes one avert one’s eyes.

Since the 2001 central government reforms, the goal has been to conduct open, prime-minister-led policy debates to improve policy quality.

Yet today, discussions that deviate from the essence of policy are being openly conducted.

As examples, this essay addresses the Kake Gakuen issue as a distortion of micro-level structural reform, and the consumption tax debate as a symbol of macroeconomic mismanagement.

The essence of the Kake issue lies in the relentless attacks by resistance forces against reformers within Kasumigaseki.

The essence of the consumption tax debate is the continued neglect of the Sims theory, which has attracted global attention.

The Kake issue arose within the framework of the National Strategic Special Zones, of which the author was both a proponent and a private-sector advisory council member.

On macroeconomic issues, the author also engaged in a public debate with Professor Sims at a Japan Society event in New York in May.

Based on these experiences, the author seeks to correct distorted debates.

He hopes the Diet and parts of the media will promptly return to orthodox policy discussions.

Why establish new veterinary schools.

Foreign investors are uniformly astonished by one fact.

For 38 years, Japan effectively established no new medical schools.

This was due to entrenched interests such as medical associations, allied politicians, and bureaucratic power.

It was a textbook case of regulatory bedrock.

Through the powerful reform tool of special zones, a breakthrough finally occurred, and a new medical school opened in Narita this April.

Yet an even stronger regulatory bedrock remained.

The establishment of veterinary schools.

In Japan, no new veterinary school had been approved for 52 years.

When this is explained, foreign experts react with disbelief.

Over the past 50 years, Japan’s population grew by 30 percent, and real GDP more than quadrupled.

Meanwhile, life sciences have undergone major transformations, posing new challenges for veterinary education.

Diseases such as SARS and avian influenza threaten the world at the boundary between humans and animals.

In drug development, veterinary expertise in preclinical research using experimental animals has become increasingly vital.

In regenerative medicine, the shortage of personnel capable of managing medium- and large-sized animals has become evident.

Reflecting these changes, veterinarians’ career paths have diversified.

Over the past decade, the number of veterinarians working in pharmaceutical companies increased by about 50 percent.

The number of veterinary graduates choosing corporate careers increased by about 60 percent.

Despite this, with no new schools for 50 years, competition among researchers stagnated, and graduate numbers remained fixed at around 1,000 annually.

How to break through this regulatory bedrock.

This is the essence of orthodox policy debate.