[Sangetsu]

The garden-variety Japanese university which most Japanese attend is big on lectures, and terribly short on substance, and provides less in real knowledge than an American junior college. Most universities exist more to groom future salarymen than they are to provide a worthwhile education, particularly in regards to business. It is no secret that Japanese university students spend their university years traveling, having fun, and enjoying the last real break they are going to enjoy before beginning their careers.

Three of my closest friends in Japan are university professors, and one of them has written extensively on the decline of the Japanese education system and Japan's increasingly uncompetitive business culture.

You could probably learn more about the situation from foreign students who have attended university in Japan. Another friend of mine spent a year studying at Tokyo university, and found it to be far easier than his studies at CSULB, (which is not even in the top 100 universities).