Liberal education has been a target of political discourse in many countries, and Japan is no exception. In Japanese higher education, there are three types of institutions: national public, local public, and private. In June 2015, Japan's minister of education, Hakubun Shimomura, called upon the country's national universities to take "active steps to abolish [social science and humanities] organizations or to convert them to serve areas that better meet society's needs." In this article, the author presents a brief history in the defense of Japanese liberal education.