There is no legal definition on the scope of HEIs in Japan.

The scope of higher education institutions (HEIs), subject to the Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education (known as the Tokyo Convention) is defined by the “Guideline on Recognition of Higher Education Qualification – Asia-Pacific Regional Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education” (Japanese language only).

According to the Guideline, HEIs include universities (大学), graduate schools (大学院), junior colleges (短期大学), Colleges of Technology (KOSEN) (高等専門学校) , and Professional Training Colleges (専門学校) (except for Prefectural Colleges of Agriculture), and three educational institutions operated by government ministries and agencies (省庁大学校). Based on the type of establishing body, HEIs are categorized as national (国立), public (公立), or private (私立).

Under the category of “university”, there are undergraduate programmes, junior colleges, and graduate schools. Within them, universities and junior colleges that aim to educate professionals through a high-quality vocational education are Professional and Vocational Universities (PVU, 専門職大学) and Professional and Vocational Junior Colleges (PVJC, 専門職短期大学), and graduate schools that specialize in fostering highly-specialized professionals with flexible and practical education,  known as Professional Graduate Schools (専門職大学院).

According to the School Basic Survey, as of May 1, 2019, there were 786 universities (including undergraduate and graduate schools), 326 Junior Colleges, 57 Colleges of Technology, 2,805 Professional Training Colleges, and 3 educational institutions operated by government ministries and agencies in Japan.

Information is available at the website of the National Information Center for Academic Recognition Japan (NIC-Japan)