As of 2013, there were 86, 90 public universities and 606 private universities in Japan.[1] National universities tend to be held in higher regard in higher education in Japan than private or public universities.
As of the 2019 fiscal year, the number of national universities, 86, is unchanged, while the number of public universities increased to 93 and private universities increased to 607 compared with 2013.[2]
In 2004, the national university system underwent partial privatization. Since 2004, each national university has been incorporated as a and given limited autonomy in its operations.[3] Faculty and staff are no longer working for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. University names which shifted are .
In April 2017, an amendment to the National University Corporation Act enabled the classification of national university corporations as “Designated National University Corporations”, with the stated aims of significantly improving the education and research levels of Japanese universities. As of 2021 a total of 10 national universities have been thus selected by the MEXT.
The University of Tokyo | former Tokyo Imperial University | Tokyo | June 2017 | |
Kyoto University | former Kyoto Imperial University | Kyoto | June 2017 | |
Tohoku University | former Tohoku Imperial University | Sendai | June 2017 | |
Tokyo Institute of Technology | now Institute of Science Tokyo | Tokyo | March 2018 | |
Nagoya University | former Nagoya Imperial University | Nagoya | March 2018 | |
former Osaka Imperial University | Osaka | October 2018 | ||
Hitotsubashi University | former Tokyo University of Commerce | Tokyo | September 2019 | |
University of Tsukuba | former Tokyo University of Education | Tsukuba | October 2020 | |
Tokyo Medical and Dental University | now Institute of Science Tokyo | Tokyo | October 2020 | |
Kyushu University | former Kyushu Imperial University | Fukuoka | November 2021 |
The list is in alphabetical order:
Although The Open University of Japan and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology are founded by the national government's initiatives and heavily subsidised by the government, they are classified as private.