ABSTRACT
The notion that Japanese university-bound students face an almost unprecedented period of ‘examination hell’ during upper secondary school in order to pass difficult admissions tests has been transmitted well beyond the borders of this island nation. The image of students in pristine uniforms, sitting tidily behind small wooden desks, packed 40 or more in a classroom, all studying diligently for exams, is an enduring one. Yet, in the context of a declining population and the over-expansion of new universities in the early 1990s, Japan is now experiencing an era of so-called full admissions, or zennyū jidai, where there is a place for any student wanting to advance on to an institution of higher education. Competition remains only at the top in the prestigious national and elite private universities. Lower-tier and even medium-tier institutions are competing with each other for too few students and have already made changes in how they admit students. With the mathematics of admissions against them, many lower-tiered universities cannot meet quotas.
