Leaving the Faculty of Law, Will Japan's Future Be Okay?

In 2023, the Chuo University Faculty of Law campus moved from Tama to the city center (Myogadani, Bunkyo Ward).This made it easier for high school students in Chiba, Saitama, and Kanagawa to take the exam.It was also shown in numbers.The number of applicants for general selection at the Chuo University Faculty of Law increased by 402 compared to the previous year.On the other hand, some university officials expected an increase of more than 1000 people, possibly due to the brand power of ``central law''.

But this is the reality.Law school has fallen out of favor in recent years.
In the 2023 general selection entrance examination, the number of applicants to major private law schools is decreasing across the board (both compared to the previous year). ◆ Aoyama Gakuin University 725 ◆ Keio University 39 ◆ Meiji University 412 ◆ Rikkyo University 2598 ◆ Waseda University 332

The University of Tokyo Faculty of Law is also not popular.The University of Tokyo recruits students by subject in the entrance examination.The minimum passing score for Literature 10, a course leading to the Faculty of Law, was 20 to XNUMX points higher than Literature XNUMX (mainly Economics) and Humanities XNUMX (mainly Literature and Education).In other words, the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo was the most difficult humanities course.

Recently, however, something strange is happening.Looking at the minimum passing score for each subject, in 2019, Humanities 2020 surpassed Humanities 2021 for the first time. In 22, the first class of the humanities reversed, but in XNUMX and XNUMX, in addition to the second and third classes of the humanities, it will exceed the first class of the humanities.In other words, over the past two years, the economics, humanities, and education departments at the University of Tokyo have been more difficult than the law departments.
In 2023, category XNUMX of the humanities will surpass categories XNUMX and XNUMX.However, it is a very close margin, and we do not know when it will be overturned after next year.

Why are law schools becoming less popular?I think it has something to do with what I want to do after graduation.
Due to the nature of the Faculty of Law, where legal education is the main focus, many graduates are legal professionals and national civil servants.From the application status of both, it is possible to find a causal relationship with the law school application.

First, he is a lawyer.Lawyers, public prosecutors, and judges typically have to go to law school and pass the bar exam.However, the number of applicants for law school was 1756 (2006) → 414 (10) → 1450 (14) → 8058 (18) → 633 (22). However, from 2014 to 21, the number has been below XNUMX, which can be said to be sluggish.

Naturally, this number also reflects on the number of applicants for the bar examination.The number continued to decline from 8015 (2014) → 5238 (18) → 3082 (22).Some say that he was able to avoid going to law school because it takes time and money.

If the number of applicants for the national bar examination decreases like this, it will be a very bad situation for Japanese society.In the future, there won't be enough lawyers to protect vulnerable people.Thinking about this gives me a dark feeling.

and a national civil servant.The number of applicants for employment examinations to become national civil servants, the so-called career track (the total of examinations for graduate school graduates and university graduates) is also decreasing, from 2012 in 5110 to 2022 in 8295. With people, it has decreased by nearly 10% in 459 years.The decline in the number of students at the University of Tokyo was particularly notable: 2014 (433) → 16 (329) → 18 (249) → 20 (102) → 22 (XNUMX).

In the first place, the University of Tokyo, which was the predecessor of Tokyo Imperial University, strongly emphasized the training of bureaucrats.The educational goal states, "Imperial Universities teach science and arts that meet the needs of the nation..." (Imperial University Ordinance). “Necessary” means “something that must be done”.In other words, the role of the University of Tokyo was to teach specialized fields to meet the needs of the nation, or to put it plainly, to train policy-thinking experts = bureaucrats.

However, bureaucrats have fallen out of favor.There are various reasons and backgrounds.

The harsh working environment, such as being busy working on official documents until late at night, the flustered appearance of bureaucrats who respond to Diet committees, and the unwillingness to answer the questions of the people, are the current students of the University of Tokyo as a profession. I guess I didn't feel the charm of

Then, where did the people who wanted to become lawyers and bureaucrats from difficult universities such as the University of Tokyo go?Emerging IT companies such as finance, trading companies, Softbank and Rakuten are very popular.Foreign financial and consulting firms that guarantee high salaries based on ability are also attracting attention.

I started hearing this story from a professor of law at the University of Tokyo. “The Treasury Department is becoming a thing of the past because the smartest student in the class is going to Goldman Sachs or McKinsey these days.”

Is the future of Japanese society all right now that there are no more talented legal professionals or bureaucrats?Isn't a dangerous and outrageous policy rampant?Won't a nonsense legal judgment be made that is far from common sense?Scary to imagine.If the level of legal professions and bureaucrats falls sharply as a result of people moving away from law schools, it could be exaggerated to throw Japanese society into chaos.

Japanese society should have a greater sense of crisis.To that end, it is an urgent issue to value law graduates and to further enhance law faculty education.