L.A. Firm Helping Japanese Establish a U.S. University : Pacific Rim: The four-year school will be built in Virginia. The Japanese have an increasing investment in American campuses, but this is the first it will own outright.

A Brentwood-based property firm is developing the first Japanese-owned university in the United States, the most costly and ambitious project among a growing number of Japanese investments in U.S. college campuses.

Lowe Enterprises Inc. is developing the school, Washington International University, in Loudoun County, Va., 25 miles outside Washington, on behalf of EIE International Corp., a Japanese real estate and investment firm with $7 billion in assets.

The school, scheduled to open on leased space as early as 1991 with about 500 American and Japanese students, will aim to build understanding and combat the deteriorating relations between the two countries, project executives said. The university’s own facilities accommodating 2,000 students would be available by 1993.

“We are very much concerned with the current situation between the United States and Japan. We have so many problems, particularly in the area of economics and business,” said Katsuyuki Imamura, executive director of the university’s planning and development committee. “We are aware of the need for stronger cooperation and the need for more understanding of each other.”

Total project cost, not including land or the academic program, is estimated at $250 million, said James DeFrancia, president of Lowe Enterprises’ Mid-Atlantic subsidiary in Sterling, Va.

“The whole intent is to have a student body, 50-50, of Americans and Japanese who are mixed, living together in a traditional college environment while studying each other’s culture and language,” DeFrancia said. “If you look ahead 25 years, these students will achieve positions of business and political leadership.”

The idea originally came from Toshio Yamaguchi, a former labor minister and eight-term member of the lower house of Japan’s Parliament. He travels widely and is regarded as an internationalist.

The university project is the largest effort to date of a surge in Japanese investments in U.S. higher education. According to the American Council on Education, other recent projects include:

- A two-year college for American and Japanese students set to open in June in Annapolis, Md. The International College of America, developed by the Yokohama Academy, will specialize in international relations and business. About 200 students are expected to enroll.

- A joint school operated by Teikyo University and Salem College in West Virginia.

- Teikyo University also purchased the Loretto Heights campus from Regis College in Denver to operate a joint program in Pacific studies.

- Amvic International, a Japanese firm specializing in English-language instruction, has purchased a 49% share in Warner Pacific College in Portland, Ore., for $6 million. Amvic plans to establish an Asian and Latin American studies program.

- Willamette University in Salem, Ore., has sold property to Tokyo International University to establish a student exchange program in Asian studies.

In addition, said Colorado educator David Figuli, Japanese investors are seeking to purchase the Judson Baptist College campus near Portland, Ore.

Japanese investors have also begun establishing schools for elementary and secondary school students, including programs in Gardena, Torrance, and a high school accredited by the Japanese government in Sweetwater, Tenn. Those schools, however, have been confined to Japanese students who are the sons and daughters of executives stationed in the United States.

Japanese interest in American higher education began in the spring of 1988, when Teikyo University sent a letter to several U.S. colleges asking if any were interested in selling their campuses, Figuli said. Although the initial reaction was negative--educators explained that colleges are not commodities to be freely bought and sold--the Japanese presence today is generally welcomed as a way to increase understanding in what is often billed as the most important bilateral relationship in the world, he said.

In addition, Figuli said the Japanese investment is saving many smaller educational facilities from having to shut down.

“They are enabling some American private colleges to survive, and I think that’s extremely healthy,” said Figuli, president of the Denver-based Higher Education Group, which sells educational services and products. “Obviously, there’s a limit to it . . . but it is nowhere near the level that is even problematic.”

Barbara Turlington of the American Council on Education characterized the reaction in the U.S. higher education community as “guarded interest.”

“Insofar as they are bringing their own students in for a year or two of language or cultural training, no one has any great concerns,” she said. “When they are running institutions that attract both American and Japanese students, I think probably there will be concern about quality. And I think the accrediting associations would look at it very carefully to ensure the kinds of academic freedom peculiar to Americans.”

Turlington said she knew of no other universities owned by foreigners.

Community reactions to the Japanese investments have been mixed. Although Imamura said he had anticipated some negative response, in fact the project has received widespread support from Virginia authorities, he said.

A spokesman for Loudoun County agreed, saying the community viewed the university as a foothold into international trade.

Yokohama Academy, which runs business and English courses in Japan, has had less luck. An effort to build a Japanese boys’ school in Virginia in 1988 was rejected by county zoning officials, leading the academy president to take out an ad in the local paper complaining about racism. And in Annapolis, the academy’s college ran into initial community opposition against the increased traffic it might bring, said college President France Pruitt.

She said, however, that the problems have been ironed out.

Imamura said Washington International would be governed by a board of 20 trustees, half American and half Japanese. The university will seek full U.S. accreditation. The academic program is being developed by 15 consultants, all Americans, he said, led by William Lavery, a chancellor and president of international affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

The school would require all students to live on campus, creating an environment that would lead to greater friendships and understanding, he said.

DeFrancia said EIE is negotiating the purchase of 600 acres from Xerox Realty Corp. in Loudoun County for an undisclosed price. The total facility would be 1.3 million square feet, including eight residential dormitories, an administrative building, library, field house and other academic buildings. Arata Isozaki, who designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, is one of the lead architects.

DeFrancia said EIE has provided initial funding of millions of dollars, but that there might be additional investors, Japanese and American, in the future. The Tokyo-based firm is involved in hotels, shipping, cargo and electronics.

“It’s important because the world is getting awfully small,” he said.