Gakubatsu

In Japan, a group of alumni from the same school or university. Historically, members of gakubatsu have maintained ties with each other, which has impacted Japanese government and business.

References in periodicals archive ?

This is reinforced by the practice known as amakudari (descent from heaven), whereby bureaucrats, following retirement from government service, descend from on high to toil in the earthly realms of business and politics, taking advantage of connections forged earlier through gakubatsu (university ties), kyodobatsu (prefecture ties), and keibatsu (marriage ties).

Continuity and change: evolution, not revolution, in Japan's foreign and security policy under the DPJ

Explains Johnson, "[i]n place of the term gakubatsu, some Japanese analysts prefer Todaibatsu (cliques of Tokyo University classmates) because of the predominance of Tokyo University graduates in the bureaucracy and in the upper echelons of the banking and industrial worlds.

Do school cliques dominate Japanese bureaucracies? Evidence from Supreme Court appointments

More industrial managers believe that too many fellow Japanese employers encourage students to accept the gakubatsu system, the old-boy networks that cherry-picked the best graduates.