The 113th Installment
Commentary on Regional Development Policies — Memoir 1: A Look Back at My Student Days

by Yusuke Miyoshi,
Professor, Master Program of Innovation for Design and Engineering

Comparing my student days to a drink, it wasn't refreshing like a Fanta; I remember it as having less flavor, like the "tangerine water" that you could buy in the Showa period. About high school, I can't remember anything except being pressed for time in the science class I took at my local public high school. I only have one sepia-tinted memory of taking part in a schoolwide volleyball game on sports day. I'd been a star attacker for a short time in middle school, and that day I was chosen by a team that went on to win.

Perhaps because my time in high school had been a camouflage tone, I went to Tokyo after high school in search of a more colorful life in the city. But my lifelong dream was crushed soon thereafter, just like in the song Dragonfly by Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi. I started going to college every day, but my lectures were filled with guys. Despite the picture of campus life I had gotten from magazines, I rarely met any such girls. While it didn't look like my college life would be rosy, going to classes every day is likely what made me get serious about my studies. It wasn't that I was interested in the content of the lectures; it was that I made a lot of like-minded friends. In the summer, we'd get up early to play tennis or go swimming. Winters saw me going skiing and then enjoying a dip in a hot spring on the way back. I played every sport, as one can only do during their school years. One might say that I needn't have gone to a university in the city if this was the lifestyle I'd choose. But I made friends with a lot of very talented people that I spent my school years with, and I'm thankful that I achieved so much growth, not ending up a big fish in a little pond. I was a student during the "lost decades" following the bursting of the economic bubble in 1991, during which time Japan's economy slowed to a crawl. It was not uncommon for college students from rural areas to go back home rather than looking for jobs in the city. Many recent policies, in the name of stimulating local economies, encourage people from rural areas to attend universities outside cities. But I don't think such policies are always a good thing. Someone who graduates from an urban university, and who has become more productive by being tossed about in the city, can always be sent (or sent back) to the countryside.

I learned from my friends that I didn't need to completely understand my classes to get the credits I needed. There was a rumor at the time to the effect that the opportunities you'd be afforded after college depended on your class ranking. I knew that scholarships were available, so to prepare for tests I'd go to the library and study hard. And my grades weren't actually bad. Several people who rank higher than me got jobs at the University of Tokyo and Osaka University. I, on the other hand, was chosen for a position at a national university in the country. It was a bit of a shock. As a parting gift, my academic adviser told me to work hard because, even though Saga University wasn't the best job I could have gotten, I'd be able to find something else later if I did well. It was as if I had become a doomed noble, banished from the city to serve the Dazaifu government in Kyushu.

I started work in Kyushu at the end of March, just as the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. The scenery outside the window on the train there was little but mountains and rice paddies as far as the eye could see. Getting off the train at Saga Station, it was a relief to see a Seiyu grocery store and a bank (I never imagined that I would live in Saga for 11 years). Some might say that my hometown of Kagawa was pretty rural. But Saga, a 90 minute train ride from Hakata, is just like in Hanawa's song Saga Prefecture. I never thought life would be fun there. About the only thing I looked forward to was getting drinks once a month with an old friend from university who worked at the prefectural office.

When the new semester started, I went to the university to attend orientation for a foreign book reading course, which new teachers are put in charge of. When I went into the economics department building, I was surrounded by a swarm of university girls who had been waiting for me (I know that's hard to believe now that I'm an old guy). Smiling, they made a big fuss as if seeing some rare sight and asked me a bunch of questions about the classes and other things in high-pitched voices. I grew up with my brothers, and there were always lots of guys around in my student days, so it was culture shock to see how many female students there were in the economics department of a rural university. Those girls are all close to 40 now.