Japan needs to keep opportunities for young people in rural areas to pursue higher education even amid the country's declining birth rate and shrinking population.

The Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, has compiled a report on how universities should adapt to this era of population decline. Alongside restructuring and consolidations, it aims at decreasing the number of institutions by tightening accreditation standards for establishing universities and faculties.

The report comes against the backdrop of universities growing in number despite the demographic trend. While around 630,000 students entered universities in Japan in 2024, this number is estimated to drop to about 460,000 in 2040.

Private universities have already started to face the consequences. In 2024, roughly 60% of them saw admissions fall short of quotas, marking a record-high proportion. The situation is particularly severe for small-scale institutions in rural areas, where population decreases are accelerating.

In recent years, some struggling private universities, unable to attract enough students, have been taken over by local governments and converted into public universities.

Nevertheless, considering regional human resource needs, as well as the financial burden and other factors, the council's proposals urge local authorities to refrain from lightly converting institutions.

Higher-educational institutions also have a public role. If universities disappear from rural areas, students who cannot afford to move to major cities for college may lose out on educational opportunities.

Thus, finding a model suited to regional needs is crucial to avoid worsening the education gap between urban and rural areas.

The proposals recommend further discussions with local governments and businesses on the kind of human resource development each region needs and collaboration among universities to maintain education and research quality.

As student numbers dwindle, enhancing educational quality is also a challenge.

The report included ideas such as stricter grading criteria for students, employing specialized staff for course enrollment advice and strengthening graduate school programs. To help secure diverse student populations, it proposes initiatives to attract workers and international students.

Private universities have continuously proliferated, in part due to eased university establishment standards amid the deregulation trend in the early 1990s. University administrators also underestimated future risks.

It would be unjustifiable for the next generation's youth to foot the bill for policy failures and poor management decisions by their predecessors.

Education enriches people's lives and forms a cornerstone of society. Japan needs to build an environment in which high-quality education is accessible for everyone, no matter where they live.

Key points from the Central Council for Education's report on higher education

Improving the quality of education and research:

- Reviewing systems for accreditation evaluations

- Implementing flexible transfer rules and other measures

- Actively recruiting international students and other diverse applicants by promoting flexible enrollment quotas

- Considering institutional arrangements for improving the quality of distance-learning programs

- Greatly expanding uniform five-year degree programs integrating undergraduate and master's courses

- Reducing administrative workloads to eliminate distractions for researchers

Optimizing the overall scale of higher education:

- Moving toward stricter standards for establishing universities

- Promoting reorganization and consolidation efforts

- Providing support for scaling down or withdrawing institutions

Securing access to higher education:

- Creating "regional revitalization platforms (tentative name)" involving collaboration among industry, academia and government officials

- Introducing certification/approval frameworks for "local research and education program cooperation promotion institutions (tentative name)" to link universities collaboratively

- Supporting higher education institutions involved in regional revitalization efforts

- Increasing financial support for students