THE EPOCH TIMES - Interview with Yoko Marikawa
Thesis of a Japanese Woman Who Trailblazes a Trillion-Yuan Industry; Her Chinese Alma Mater Sells It Without Permission
By Sado Michiyo, November 24, 2010 The Epoch Times
Image Description: Yoko Marikawa, Master of Business Administration from Fudan University School of Management, who made a TV appearance in October 2009 when her master's thesis was noticed (provided by herself)
[The Epoch Times Japan November 24] China's silver industry is estimated to have a potential market size of 1 trillion yuan (12 trillion yen). However, the actual supply of goods and services is only 15% of them. Yoko Marikawa, a Japanese entrepreneur who seeks to develop the immature industry, authored a master's thesis in commerce which has high economic value and has attracted attention from domestic and foreign business circles. But now, she is being hindered from operating business in China because of the suspicion that her alma mater, a national university in China, has sold confidential treatises without permission, and has pressured her from getting involved with the affair.
University pressure and fraud
After obtaining the Executive Master of Business Administration from the School of Management at Fudan University where she studied abroad, Ms. Marikawa launched a consulting company “YOKO Management Consulting” in Shanghai, in order to make use of the knowledge gained through research on the Silver industry in Japan and other countries, and took concrete actions in an investment plan targeting the elderly group in China. With a large potential market involving 170 million people, the Chinese industry was about to awaken to the economic benefits of the Silver industry.
After publishing the paper, she was interviewed by the Chinese economic newspaper “China Business News”, the Hong Kong English-language newspaper “Global Times”, and the United States economic newspaper “Forbes”, and the Shanghai Financial Newspaper took up Ms. Marikawa's success as “a leader in the commercialization and operation of the Silver industry in China.”
But now, she cannot be seen in the national media or the local Shanghai media. This is because Ms. Marikawa exposed the fact that her alma mater, Fudan University, sold her master's thesis without her permission, to a state-owned academic literature data service “China Net (CNKI)”, when she had a non-disclosure agreement with Fudan for 10 years. She also revealed on her blog that she was considering taking the matter to trial.
The university side, who does not want to lose their face, asked Ms. Marikawa by phone, “please do not hold a trial,” and forced her classmates to insist that the non-disclosure agreement was invalid at the time of the trial, and told the Shanghai media company, which employs many graduates of the same university, “please do not write about this matter.” It was found by interviewing that pressure was applied. “It's cunning and it's like a villain. It's scary,” says Ms. Marikawa, who is frightened by the pressure applied by the national university.
Development of 1 trillion-yuan market “Leakage of treatises is a big loss”
According to the recent census of China, the number of elderly people in China is 170 million, which is 20% of the world's elderly population, making it the country with the most elderly people in the world. After the introduction of the “one-child policy” at the end of the 1970s, the demographic composition of China's population has changed significantly. Unlike Japan, which entered an aging society after its economic development reached maturity, China has entered an aging population despite being a developing country.
According to the Chinese research company “Zero Point Co., Ltd.”, the potential market size of the Silver industry in 2010 is estimated to be about 1 trillion yuan (about 12 trillion yen). However, according to Mr. Zhang Xiaoming, who is in charge of China business consulting at Daiwa Institute of Research Shanghai, the actual supply of goods and services is only 150 billion yuan (about 1.8 trillion yen), which is only about 15%. The Japan-China Economic Association has announced that the future expansion of the Silver industry will be “the most profitable industry in the 21st century after automobiles and real estate.”
Ms. Marikawa, who is anticipated to be the pioneer of this undeveloped market, said that the confidential treatise was sold without her permission, and “it has fostered competitors and my company lost customers. The leak of the treatise negatively impacted my company. I couldn't hide my resentment.”
Business schools in China require students to create theses based on applying academic theories to their own work experiences, thus the contents often contain information about their expertise, company, commercial information of their customers, etc. Students do not want to publish their treatises, so like Ms. Marikawa, at the same time as submitting their treatises, they submit a certificate of confidentiality agreement with the university for several years.
A 10-year confidential treatise leaked in just one year
It was July this year that Ms. Marikawa noticed that the master's thesis, which should have been confidentially contracted for 10 years, was being posted online without permission. When the paper was run on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Baidu, it hit four websites that sold her thesis: China Net, Paper World, Accounting Personnel Library, and Management Resources Network.
After the discovery, Ms. Marikawa immediately contacted each site and the university to request to withdraw, but the site refused to mention that it had purchased from the university. The university created a very simple document certifying the confidentiality of the treatise and notified each site, so it became unavailable online in early August. During the period it was published, the treatise had already been downloaded and sold to dozens of people, but there was no apology from the university for this and no clear explanation for the cause of the leak.
Fudan University's claims
The university side has changed its claim so far and has made excuses for information leakage and treatise sales. The first time, they claimed that “there was a problem with the method of confidentiality agreement,” and the second time they said, “since the confidentiality agreement is tied to the library, the effect of the contract with the university cannot be guaranteed.” The third time, they denied even the confidentiality, saying “this treatise is not considered to be confidential.”
A legal expert observed that the university's second claim, “confidentiality is a contract with a library,” states that “the library does not have sufficient authority to sign a non-disclosure agreement that represents the school in the first place. If it had the students submit a contract, the university would have committed a malicious fraud.”
On the Fudan University side, the dean of the graduate school, Youfen Jiang, oversees this matter and conveys the university's claim to Ms. Marikawa. Mr. Jiang explained, “the Fudan University Graduate School has signed a contract with China Net since 2003, and every year all students' treatises are provided to CNKI and they receive a ‘treatise collection fee’ as a reward.” He has repeatedly argued that this is the case, denying the legitimacy and confidentiality of the treatise leak. Moreover, according to the interview, Mr. Jiang has been making short phone calls for the past three months, saying, “please do not hold a trial.”
National universities put pressure on the media Graduates
On August 29, Kim, a reporter from the Shanghai Law News, who learned of the leak of the treatise, interviewed both Fudan University and Ms. Marikawa. However, two days later, Kim's boss instructed Kim not to write about Fudan University. According to his boss, the day after Kim's interview, the university's public relations department notified the newspaper's senior management “do not write about this.” Reporter Kim and his boss have told Ms. Marikawa that he was notified by the university on MSN Messenger.
Shanghai Media, which has many graduates from Fudan University, unilaterally conveys the university's allegations that it does not accept the treatise as a confidential treatise, does not apologize, and does not negotiate compensation. Ms. Marikawa said, “the only Shanghai media that interviewed me about this incident is the Shanghai Daily English version, and the other Chinese Shanghai media are interviewing and reporting only on the university side. The local report is biased. I am talking about it.”
Fudan University also has a law school and a media school, and it is expected that similar pressure was exerted on the Shanghai local newspaper because of the wide network of courts, law firms, and media present in Shanghai. “In China, student bullying by universities has become a social problem, and everyone knows the university’s corruption here. But like Fudan University, universities have become a villain in the area, and no one has the courage to sue,” says Ms. Marikawa.
According to another graduate of the same university, it is not uncommon for confidential treatises to be leaked and sold online, and the university's response is dishonest. Even if injustice is discovered, graduates who know the size of the power will remain silent. Ms. Marikawa's classmate, who learned of this matter, advised that “Shanghai is within the power of Fudan University, so no matter how much complaints you file in Shanghai, you cannot win the trial.”
Currently, Ms. Marikawa is considering claiming compensation from Fudan University and China Net through a lawyer. In October, Beijing's local newspaper, “Legal Late News,” interviewed Ms. Marikawa for the first time in a Chinese newspaper, criticizing “Fudan is a gate to leak secrets,” and attracting a lot of attention. At one point, Fudan University was pushed to the forefront of social issues in Shanghai, many internet users blamed the university, and many supportive comments were left on Ms. Marikawa's blog.
In her blog, Ms. Marikawa sternly commented, “It is a crime to betray students when a first-class university that must produce excellent talents for the future of China sells treatises with priority on earning pocket money.” She also said, “a university acting like selling a pirated DVD stall is like committing suicide by holding a rock and jumping into the sea. You can make more and more excuses and sink deeper into the seabed. Those who see the image and lament are many graduates, active students, and those who are studying hard ahead of the entrance exam.”