The "University Popularity Ranking" published monthly by JS Corporation. In the latest ranking compiled on August 31, 2024, the top 30 schools have not changed since the last compilation, with the lineup of national, public, and private schools remaining the same. In the national ranking, the top national university is "University of Tokyo," the top public university is "Osaka Metropolitan University," and the top private university is "Aoyama Gakuin University."

JS Corporation, which operates the school information site "Nihon no Gakkou," conducts monthly surveys among high school students to gauge which universities they are interested in and publishes the results as the "University Popularity Ranking." The latest version, compiled on August 31, 2024, is based on responses from 165,205 high school students collected between April 2022 and August 2024. The rankings of national, public, and private universities by prefecture have been released on the website.

In the ranking of Japan's most popular universities, "University of Tokyo" ranked first, "University of Tsukuba" ranked second, "Kyoto University" ranked third, "Osaka University" ranked fourth, and "Nagoya University" ranked fifth. Among public universities, the rankings are: first place "Osaka Metropolitan University," second place "Tokyo Metropolitan University," third place "Shizuoka Prefectural University," fourth place "Nagoya City University," and fifth place "Aichi Prefectural University." For private universities, the rankings are: first place "Aoyama Gakuin University," second place "Keio University," third place "Kinki University," fourth place "Meiji University," and fifth place "Waseda University."

August 2024 Edition of Japan's University Popularity Ranking… Which universities have grown the fastest compared to last year?

The rankings of the top 30 national and private schools have remained unchanged, consistent with previous calculations. Therefore, this time, we compared the rankings with those from August 2023, and found some changes in the national rankings: Kyushu University and Tohoku University (6th and 7th), and Hokkaido University and Kobe University (8th and 9th).

Fluctuations among public schools were less noticeable below the top five. Notably, Kyoto Prefectural University rose four places from 13th in the August 2023 edition to 9th, becoming a regular in the top 10. On the other hand, two schools that saw significant drops in rankings were Fukuoka Prefectural University and Hyogo Prefectural University. In the August 2023 edition, Fukuoka Prefectural University fell five places from 8th to 13th, and Hyogo Prefectural University dropped from 9th to 12th. Among private universities, the top 10 remained unchanged except for Doshisha University and Chuo University. Advertisements follow.

The prefectural edition of the popularity ranking provides a more realistic ranking that includes local universities. In the Fukuoka prefecture ranking, the top national and public universities are: first "Kyushu University," second "Saga University," and third "Kumamoto University." Public universities are: first "Kitakyushu City University," second "Fukuoka Prefectural University," and third "Fukuoka Women's University." The top three private universities, whether public or private, are mainly from the Kyushu region: first is "Fukuoka University," second is "Seinan Gakuin University," and third is "Kyushu Sangyo University."

Below are the top 50 schools in Japan's latest prefectural rankings.

◆ National Edition of University Popularity Ranking (August 31, 2024)

[National and Public Universities]
1st: "University of Tokyo"
2nd: "University of Tsukuba"
3rd: "Kyoto University"
4th: "Osaka University"
5th: "Nagoya University"
6th "Kyushu University"
7th "Tohoku University"
8th "Hokkaido University"
9th "Kobe University"
10th "Hitotsubashi University"

[Public Universities]
1st "Osaka Metropolitan University"
2nd "Tokyo Metropolitan University"
3rd "Shizuoka Prefectural University"
4th "Nagoya City University"
5th "Aichi Prefectural University"
6th "Yokohama City University"
7th "Kitakyushu City University"
8th "International University of AITEI"
9th "Kyoto Prefectural University"
10th "Miyagi University"

[Private Universities]
1st "Aoyama Gakuin University"
2nd "Keio University"
3rd "Kinki University"
4th "Meiji University"
5th "Waseda University"
6th "Sophia University"
7th "Kansai University"
8th "Komazawa University"
9th "Doshisha University"
10th "Chuo University"