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In "Beyond those shores"(7 June), Times Higher Education equates the divergence between Japan and the rest of the world in higher education terms with an intellectual deficit on the part of the former. There is an alternative interpretation. In my experience, Japanese educators have devoted more energy to importing ideas from abroad than to explaining and exporting their own practices. Consequently, the distinctive qualities of Japanese education lack appreciation. THE's article may in part be read as a symptom of that problem.

Anthony Haynes, Former visiting professor, Hiroshima University