This chapter is not an exercise in advocacy on behalf of the private university sector. It does, however, adopt a position sympathetic to the sector’s predicament on the basis that private universities have not, on the whole, featured heavily in analyses of Japanese higher education for international Anglophone audiences. The chapter has two main concerns. The first is to explain the different senses in which private universities are indeed “private.” It looks at the origins of these universities, their legal status and their relationship with public authorities, while seeking account for these attributes by reference to some key historical developments. The second aim is to describe the functions of private universities in the contemporary Japanese higher education system.

Introduction

Appearing on the website of the Japan Association for Private Universities and Colleges, the statement below is more than just an idealistic self-affirmation.

For one, it effectively encapsulates several of the key features of private universities: they were founded by autonomous, non-government actors, each with their own distinct motivations; as a product of these diverse origins there is great variety in institutional missions and academic activities within the private university sector; a number of changes in contemporary society are posing new challenges and opportunities for the sector. Statements such as these are also exercises in advocacy. At a general level, they are designed to offset the popular assumption (not unique to higher education, nor indeed to Japan) that private institutions are of lesser quality and legitimacy than their public cousins—a notion expressed in Japanese as kankō shitei or “public high, private low.”