Andrew Pollack, "The Creative Force Behind Japanese Computer University" The New York Times, Technology, June 26, Sunday 1994

TOSIYASU L. KUNII, one of Japan's most prolific and outspoken computer scientists, says there is a reason that Japanese companies do not design successful computer operating systems or original microprocessors. Japan's education system, he says, churns out uncreative graduates. Others have made similar observations, but Professor Kunii is doing something about it. He quit his job at the prestigious Tokyo University to start his own computer college.

The University of Aizu, which opened its doors in April 1993, has only about 500 students and two main departments hardware and software. It is in the middle of nowhere, three hours by train from Tokyo. But it could serve as a model for the reform of higher education in Japan.