A is a corporate body (legal entity) established under the provisions of the National University Corporation Act (2003) for the purpose of establishing a national university in Japan.
As part of promoting the reform of Japanese universities, all Japanese national universities has been incorporated as a National University Corporation since 2004.
In 2018, National University Corporation Gifu University and National University Corporation Nagoya University integrated the new "Tokai National Higher Education and Research System", which became the first case of a Corporation owning two universities.
The scope of business of National University Corporations is stipulated as follows by Article 22 of the National University Corporation Act.
At the 190th National Diet in 2016, the National University Corporation Act was amended and the Designated National University () corporation system was enacted. The goal of Designated National University is to further improve the level of education and research in Japan. The selected national universities must have the highest level of education and research capabilities in Japan, and will be able to enjoy more government subsidies and more free use of funds (including larger professors salary range) in order to help attract world-class researchers.
The application requirements are:
Due to the above-mentioned strict conditions, only 10 of the 86 national universities in Japan have become the Designated National University by 2021.
In addition, among the seven imperial universities that were considered the best national universities, only Hokkaido University did not become Designated National University.