20 Jan, 2013
Tour guide exams another example of national licensing frenzy | The Japan Times Online
Colin P.A. Jones wondered if he was alone in laughing out loud at a question about impaired thinking in the national nursing exam (“Stop thinking — the exam is about to start,” Zeit Gist, Dec. 18).
There is no end to this national licensing frenzy, and it brought to mind another fiasco: tour guide certification in a foreign language.
Jurisdiction for the guide system was hotly contested between two ministries — transport and welfare — in 1949, the same year when the national bar exam was made law. Parliament debate records show that the welfare ministry, which decided which hotels could be labeled “international tourist class,” eventually ceded some sovereignty to the transport bureaucrats, who started scoring tour guide candidates in subjects such as foreign-language ability and character assessment (jinbutsu kōsa), my fatal flaw.
Read the rest: Tour guide exams another example of national licensing frenzy | The Japan Times Online.
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