As of 2013, there were 86 national universities (国立大学, kokuritsu daigaku), 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 National University Corporation (国立大学法人, kokuritsu daigaku hōjin) and given limited autonomy in its operations.[3] Faculty and staff are no longer government employees (国家公務員, kokka kōmuin) working for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. University names which shifted are "graduate university" (大学院大学, daigakuin daigaku).
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.
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.