To answer my own question: yes. Rits must have noticed that the era of a buyer’s market in education was fast on the horizon. Thus, creating a college that guaranteed a 50% international student population is a very good idea since Japan is a major destination for the world’s study abroad students.

Considering Hagi’s failure, clearly the prefecture messed up big time. However, as you know Japan has a hard time saying goodbye to institutions, much like a girlfriend/boyfriend that’s bringing you down yet you just can’t seem to let go.

Checking the ever-useful Wiki (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%90%A9%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6), it shows that this “protection from creditors” is actually bankruptcy. The creation of the school in its current form was actually the restructuring of a failed women’s 2-year college, though this has clearly not been all that successful.

To fight the lagging enrollment, the university has rearranged its currculum, cut the number of teachers by 2/3, and strengthened its ties to Yamaguchi University, its more solvent and public neighbor.