The Implications of General Education in Public Universities in Japan: Taking Osaka University as an Example

摘要

General education originated from the western countries, Japan was the first to accept the western general education mode in Asia. After introduced to Japan, initially general education was fully accepted, which was intensified firmly in positioning and proportioning without considering actual situations, later it was completely rejected. With the college reform launched in 1991, except the University of Tokyo, the general education in all other universities broke up one after another. In recent years, due to attentions and support of social fields, general education in universities start to restore, and the general education departments were rebuilt or newly built. The Osaka University is a top quality university in Japan, where the evolution of general education better reflects characteristics of the general education reform in Japan, which provides an entry point to understand the general education in Japan and provide references for the general education reform in China.