In Japan, business schools are strictly graduate schools, as opposed to business schools of the West, which include degree programs at undergraduate (bachelor's), graduate (master's), and corporate training (non-degree) levels. In addition to universities, there are many vocational schools and companies (corporate training companies) that call themselves "business schools." When considering acquiring an MBA, it is important to determine whether the curriculum and the education and research achievements of the professors meet international standards as a business school. The Financial Times Ranking, the world's most prestigious MBA ranking service, clearly states that international accreditation is a basic requirement for MBA ranking.
What is a business school?
In Japan, master's programs are divided into "graduate school" and "professional graduate school" under the School Education Law as stipulated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The reason behind the classification of "graduate schools" into two types is that Japanese graduate schools have been effectively "institutions for training scholars" and a new institutional framework was needed to train practitioners. In Japan, Keio Business School and NUCB Business School, which have been providing MBA education since before the emergence of the new system of professional graduate schools, have been conducting MBA education according to the standards set by graduate schools around the world. Many universities that started practical management education programs as graduate schools of business administration after 2000 are providing MBA education as professional graduate schools.