Do You Want to Know what’s Going to Happen to the Three Prospective Universities after All?

No? Oh, well, I’m going to tell you anyway.

Yesterday, MEXT officials backtracked further, saying that  the three prospective universities hadn’t been denied permission since there was nothing in writing and they’d misunderstood Minister Tanaka. Today, Minister Tanaka went further and allowed that the MEXT Three would be given permission under current standards after all.

So all’s well that ends well? Not so for the Noda administration, I think. Noda’s not going to dismiss Tanaka and Tanaka is not going to take leave of her own volition. And the bureaucracy is not going to take the fall for the “misunderstanding,” certainly not when the Noda administration’s life expectancy is estimated in months, no not weeks.