Brain Drain in Engineering Spells Disaster for Japanese Companies

On May, 27, some 70,000 passengers were stranded at the airport when the computer reservations system of All Nippon Airways (ANA) became paralyzed. As many as 130 flights were canceled on that day.

With the plunging number of talented students opting for engineering and science majors, and the deterioration in the quality of its science education, Japan has found itself in deep trouble. Tokyo Web reported on Wednesday that students’ tendency to avoid engineering and science majors is to blame for the latest series of system failures in airline companies, communication service providers and financial institutions. Lack of brains in the sector means that companies are forced to hire the less-qualified who have not received any professional computer training in their undergraduate years. Against such a backdrop, frequent system failures are not surprising.

Environment and information studies Professor Oiwa Hajime of Keio University said, “We only have a few number of professors who specialize in professional computer engineering education. If this trend continues, we will see more technological disasters such as ANA’s system failure.”

Japan’s computer systems engineering industry is not the only one in trouble. The difficulties in securing qualified engineering graduates are a common problem for many industries. An increasing number of large companies are retraining their new recruits, teaching them engineering basics from scratch.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the nation’s leading economic newspaper, about half of the 500 new recruits who joined the engineering sector of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries this spring must earn credits from four or more lectures among 16 courses set up by the company. Along with practical training sessions, courses that review the basics are also available. The trainees need to sit through exams just as they did back in college, and if they fail to pass the exams, they must take supplementary lessons.

Canon, famous for its digital cameras and photocopiers, has also set up lectures on basic theories that can last as long as four months for its 640 newly-recruited engineers. Exams are also included in the package.

Meanwhile, Japanese universities are alarmed by the falling number of applicants to engineering departments, which took a rapid downturn from 600,000 in the early 1990s to 268,000 in 2007.

The engineering department in the University of Tokyo has been inviting high school students to the campus since last July to have them attend science experiment sessions with the professors. The message the school is trying so hard to get across is simple; “Science and technology is fun!”

Many universities have come up with other innovative ideas to attract students to the engineering department. Waseda University split its science and engineering department into three sectors: creative, basic and advanced science and engineering divisions. Tokyo Denki University has newly set up a “Future Science Department” by combining architecture and information engineering sectors from its engineering department. Tokyo Institute of Technology offers an elective course that uses “Winter Sonata,” a popular Korean drama in Japan, as its main lesson material.

iam@donga.com