Decisions by the Board of Directors and Consultations with the Board of Councilors:
An Analysis of the Articles of Endowment for Incorporated Educational Institutions that Established Universities
The decision-making mechanism at incorporated educational institutions (IEI) in Japan comprises two organs: the board of directors (BD) and the board of councilors (BC). According to a principle in the Private Schools Act, the BD makes decisions and the BC offers consultation. However, the law permits some flexibility. It allows individual IEIs to stipulate in their articles of endowment that matters for BC consultation require not only consultation but also a resolution of the BC. This complicates the relationship between the BD and the BC in terms of decision-making in IEI management. By analyzing the contents of endowment for all 540 IEIs that were operating universities in fiscal 2008, this paper seeks to clarify the relationship between the BD and the BC in decision-making at such IEIs, and thereby to gain an overall picture of how frameworks for decision-making in private university management are formulated today.