The two aspects that one should be most aware of regarding overseas MBA acquisition are ranking and tuition. The U.S. News & World Report publishes a list of the top 14 business schools, listing their tuition as well as the number of students enrolled. The MIT Sloan School of Management has the highest tuition (2015 ranking). With an annual tuition of 78.9 million yen (conversion at 1 USD = 120 JPY), that comes out to 15.78 million yen over two years. Given that Boston, Massachusetts, where MIT is located, is in an expensive region, daily living expenses would be about 200,000 yen per month, totaling 4.80 million yen over two years. The result (using the above calculations) calculates to approximately 20.0 million yen as the total expenses for a Sloan School MBA. Fortunately, the United States has a culture that makes funds available to students unable to pay such staggering amounts in the form of multiple types of scholarships (many in accordance with academic performance or other stipulations) and long-term education loans. The fact is, then, that many MBA students attend programs while receiving some kind of financial support.

Instead of calling these “expenses” for MBA acquisition, let’s change our perspective and label it an “investment.” The above case is an illustration of an investment (in oneself) of 20.0 million yen. Let’s say your annual salary was 10.0 million yen before getting an MBA, and increases by 20% to 12.0 million yen after you acquire your MBA. Equivalent to a 20% yield, this then becomes an attractive investment; your principal is earned back after 10 years. The overseas MBA ranking was created with this base as its viewpoint. In a region, however, where there is no deeply rooted culture that enables one to expect increased remuneration after MBA acquisition, the fact that regional business schools do not appear in Western MBA rankings comes as no surprise.

This holds especially true in Japan. No matter how much the economy may grow, it is a fact that educational institutions that provide managerial education have been slow to make efforts to provide the kind of management education needed to match our actual social conditions. Companies have established their own employee education systems, and that, too, has worked to minimize the esteem and worth of MBA education. While domestic MBA education itself has been immature compared with that in Western countries, one does get the sense that the situation has changed in the last 15 years. In another 15 years, it may well be that business schools will appear in Japan with tuition fees of 10.0 million yen, in which education is performed that corresponds to and justifies such costs.

・Harvard Business School Tuition
・MIT Sloan School of Management Tuition