A haze over the rising sun

Decent survey in The Economist this week about Japan's current recovery and prospects for its future. But the survey could have been a lot more complete. Japan's social problems - a crumbling educational system, family breakdown, women's inequality, and rampant sex slavery - are not discussed.
Most interestingly, though, the survey twice mentions fixing "Japan's failing universities" as a high priority, but gives absolutely no information on why the universities are failing, as well as no ideas for how to fix them. Too bad, because that's what I most wanted to see. Living in Japan as I do, I have found that universities are the biggest difference between Japan and America. I am convinced that if Japanese universities are not fixed, Japan will never fix a lot of its problems, both social and economic.