[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Japan's "朝日新聞" on the 15th that the increased trend of domestic minority, Japan's private university enrollment insufficiency is increasingly highlighted, and currently 53% of private universities fail to complete the established enrollment program. Because the private university's operating income is highly dependent on tuition fees, the enrollment gap has directly triggered a general business trouble. In this context, about 20% of university operating legal persons have begun to see "home tax" (people can choose to pay taxes in more than 1,700 cities, towns and villages in Japan, and local governments will generally prepare local specialities for taxpayers as a return - editors) as a new income support channel.
The data showed that in 2025, there were 179 national and public universities in Japan, while the number of private universities reached 607. The survey of 2022 showed that the total revenue of private universities was about 3.6 trillion yen (100 yen or 4.8 yuan), of which 77% came from student fees, government subsidies accounted for only 11%, contributions were 2%. Therefore, more and more universities pay attention to the share of "university support" in "home country tax".
Take for example the private universities operated by the same legal entity in the city of Hangzhou, Japan: over 80% of the students in the university are local, but the trend of minority has affected the lack of enrollment for years to come, and in recent six years the tuition income has been reduced by 66 million yen, accounting for 6% of the annual income of the two schools.
Regarding the practice of private universities using "hometown tax" to ease operating pressure, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan said that under the background of declining birthrate, private universities need to diversify their sources of funds, and "hometown tax" is one of them, which is worth jointly promoting and implementing. (Liu Yating)