【Aging, safety net and fiscal crisis in Japan】No.90: University Admission Percentage Has Risen Sharply

Column No. 11 shows that the 18-year-old population in Japan has been rapidly decreasing since 1990. According to a survey collecting basic school data released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), the number of high school graduates decreased from 1,766,917 in 1990 to 1,069,568 in 2017 (Table 1). Nevertheless, the number of private universities has increased from 372 in 1990 to 604 in 2017. This is supported by the fact that the admission percentage of high school graduates to four-year universities has increased for both genders from 1990 to 2010 (Figure 1), and the number of high school graduates who advanced to universities has increased from 314,982 in 1990 to 528,666 in 2017. What surprised me is the fact that the university admission percentage was very low, at 22.2% for males and 13.5% for females, in 1990, just before the bubble economy burst.

（Source）Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology