Entrance University entrance is the traditional route taken by Japanese students to enter the gateway of higher education as it is by far the most prestigious form of higher education in the country. In contrast to the practice of relying on grade point averages and percentages for assessing eligibility in countries like Canada and the United States, entrance to universities in Japan is primarily determined by the scores obtained in entrance examinations (), which serve as the main criteria for university admission. People enrolled in undergraduate schools are awarded bachelor's degrees which take four to six years. Graduate schools award master's (2 years), doctoral (3 years), and professional degrees (2–3 years). Such intense competition means that many students cannot compete successfully for admission to the university of their choice. An unsuccessful student can either accept an admission elsewhere, forgo a college education, or wait until the following spring to take the national examinations again. A large number of students choose the last option. These students, called
ronin, meaning masterless
samurai, spend an entire year, and sometimes longer, studying and making preparations to secure another opportunity to attempt at the entrance examinations. In 2011, the number of ronin who took the uniform test was 110,211, while the number of high school students who took the test was 442,421.
Yobikou are private schools that, like many
juku, help students prepare for entrance examinations. While yobikou have many programs for upper-secondary school students, they are best known for their specially designed full-time, year-long classes for ronin. The number of applicants to four-year universities totaled almost 560,000 in 1988. Ronin accounted for about 40% of new entrants to four-year colleges in 1988. Most ronin were men, but about 14% were women. The ronin experience is so common in Japan that the Japanese education structure is often said to have an extra ronin year built into it. Yobikou sponsor a variety of programs, both full-time and part-time, and employ an extremely sophisticated battery of tests, student counseling sessions, and examination analysis to supplement their classroom instruction. The cost of yobikou education is high, comparable to first-year university expenses, and some specialized courses at yobikou are even more expensive. Some yobikou publish modified commercial versions of the proprietary texts they use in their classrooms through publishing affiliates or by other means, and these are popular among the general population preparing for college entrance exams. Yobikou also administer practice examinations throughout the year, which they open to all students for a fee. In the late 1980s, the examination and entrance process were the subjects of renewed debate. In 1987 the schedule of the Joint First Stage Achievement Test was changed, and the content of the examination itself was revised for 1990. The schedule changes for the first time provided some flexibility for students wishing to apply to more than one national university. The new Joint First Stage Achievement Test was prepared and administered by the
National Center for University Entrance Examinations and was designed to accomplish better assessment of academic achievement. The
Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (Monbusho), the predecessor of MEXT, hoped many
private schools would adopt or adapt the new national test to their own admissions requirements and thereby reduce or eliminate the university tests. But, by the time the new test was administered in 1990, few schools had displayed any inclination to do so. The ministry urged universities to increase the number of students admitted through alternate selection methods, including admission of students returning to Japan from long overseas stays, admission by recommendation, and admission of students who had graduated from upper-secondary schools more than a few years before. Although a number of schools had programs in place or reserved spaces for returning students, only 5% of university students were admitted under these alternate arrangements in the late 1980s. Other college entrance issues include proper guidance for college placement at the upper-secondary level and better dissemination of information about university programs. The ministry provides information through the National Center for University Entrance Examination's on-line information access system and encourages universities, faculties, and departments to prepare brochures and video presentations about their programs.
Scandal In response to allegations of bribery perpetrated by a former MEXT official, Futoshi Sano, who reportedly exchanged funds in return for a place for his son at
Tokyo Medical University, an investigation into university officials began. The investigation found that priority was given to
legacy applicants. The incident made international headlines, many of which denounced the pervasive
sexism of higher education in Japan,
working culture in Japan, and of Japanese society in general. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper quoted an unknown source at the university who attempted to explain the rationale for the discrimination, saying "many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children." In a subsequent government investigation of universities throughout Japan, several other medical schools, including
Juntendo University and
Showa University were found to have manipulated scores in a similar way. In December 2018, three additional universities –
Iwate Medical University,
Kanazawa Medical University, and
Fukuoka University – also admitted to the manipulation of women's entrance exam scores.
Universities In 2017, more than 2.89 million students were enrolled in Japan's 780 universities. At the top of the higher education structure are research institutions that provide four-year training leading to a
bachelor's degree, and some offer six-year programs leading to a professional degree. There are two types of public four-year colleges: the 86
national universities (including The
Open University) and the 95
local public universities, founded by prefectures and municipalities. The 597 remaining four-year colleges in 2010 were private. With a wealth of opportunities for students wishing to pursue a university education, the nation's prestigious universities are the most appealing for students seeking to gain the top notch employment prospects, particularly with the government and large corporations. The overwhelming majority of university students attend full-time day programs. In 2005, the most popular courses, enrolling almost 38% of all undergraduate students, were in the
social sciences, including
business administration,
law, and
accounting. Other popular subjects were
engineering (17.3%), the
humanities (16%), and
education (5.7%). The average costs (tuition, fees, and living expenses) for a year of higher education in 1986 were 1.4 million
Yen(US$10,000), of which parents paid a little less than 80%, or about 20% of the average family's income in 1986. To help defray expenses, students frequently work part-time or borrow money through the government-supported Japan Scholarship Association. Assistance also is offered by local governments, nonprofit corporations, and other institutions. In 2005, there were approximately 89 females for every 100 males enrolled in post-secondary education in Japan, and their numbers are still slowly increasing. Women's choices of majors and programs of study still tend to follow traditional patterns, with more than two-thirds of all women enrolling in
education,
social sciences, or
humanities courses. Only 15% studied scientific and technical subjects, and women represented less than 3% of students in
engineering, the most popular subject for men in 1991. The quality of universities and higher education in Japan is internationally recognized. There are 50 Japanese universities listed on the 2025
QS World University Rankings, with the
University of Tokyo at 32nd and
Kyoto University at 50th.
Postgraduate education Graduate schools became a part of the Japanese higher education system only after
World War II and were still not stressed in the 1990s. Even though 60 percent of all universities have graduate schools, only 7 percent of university graduates advance to master's programs, and total graduate school enrollment is about 4% of the entire university student population. The pattern of graduate enrollment is almost the opposite of that of undergraduates: the majority (63%) of all graduate students are enrolled in the national universities, and it appears that the disparity between public and private graduate enrollments is widening. Graduate education is largely a male preserve, and women, particularly at the
master's level, are most heavily represented in the liberal arts, humanities, social sciences, and education. Men are frequently found in engineering programs where, at the master's level, women comprise only 2 percent of the students. At the
doctoral level, the two highest levels of female enrollment are found in medical programs and the humanities, where in both fields 30 percent of doctoral students are women. Women account for about 13 percent of all doctoral enrollments. The low enrollment of graduate students and the profile of graduate enrollment are influenced by various factors, primarily the conventional employment practices in the industry. In the Japanese private sector, the demand for individuals holding advanced degrees, especially in fields outside of the hard sciences such as the liberal arts, social sciences, and humanities is low compared to other industrialized nations. This discrepancy can be attributed to the prevalent focus on science and technology within the Japanese economy, leading companies to favor hiring recent university graduates and providing them with on-the-job training to adhere to company protocols. ==Vocational education==