When Matthew Wilson, dean and president of Temple University Japan (TUJ), left the US in August 2020 to begin his tenure as head of the offshore campus, he faced a number of challenges: for years, higher education institutions had been shutting down across Japan as a result of demographic changes, the country’s economy was entering a period of decline and, of course, the pandemic was in full swing.

Despite these obstacles, today Temple is achieving something many other universities in Japan are struggling to: it is growing. There are currently around 2,500 undergraduate students at the institution – the highest number in its 42-year history – and it is set to open a new satellite campus in the historic city of Kyoto next month. 

Japan’s government has warned that the number of students entering universities in 2040 will have fallen by about 130,000 compared with 2022 levels, with small, private universities expected to be the hardest hit. At the same time, Japan’s national universities are concerned about their sustainability in light of demographic decline and shrinking funding. 

So how has this Tokyo-based American university, which receives no financial support from its home campus, nor from either the Japanese or US governments, managed to not only survive, but thrive, when so many domestic institutions are struggling? 

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“Japan is very much based on trust,” said Mr Wilson, who taught law at TUJ in the early 2000s before taking up university leadership roles in the US. 

“I think if we were newly coming in, there would be a lot of scepticism because so many [international] universities came in looking for money, looking for students, and then they turned around and left,” he said. Many foreigners also exited Japan in the early 2010s amid the threat of natural disasters and concerns about nuclear radiation. 

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“Every time something like that came up, I could put my hand up and say: ‘Hey, we didn’t abandon ship,’” Mr Wilson said. 

While Japanese student numbers may be declining, the country’s young people are increasingly staying put. The number of Japanese students leaving the country to study abroad plummeted during the pandemic and has still not recovered, in part due to financial constraints as well as low unemployment rates in Japan. 

However, Mr Wilson believes that domestic students – and employers – are still looking for global experiences, which might be harder to find at national universities. 

“Even though demographics are dropping in Japan, we’ll still continue to attract Japanese students just because we offer a different experience,” he said. 

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“Because [Japanese students are] more likely to stay home, if they’re looking for that international experience, we’re kind of a perfect destination, because our tuition is pegged to the Japanese market.”

TUJ’s courses are all taught in English and around 70 per cent of the undergraduate cohort is international, with 40 per cent coming from the US. 

When the opportunity came up to expand into Kyoto, “it was really perfectly timed”, Mr Wilson said. The new site will offer more physical campus space, as well as allowing students to move between two of Japan’s most famous cities. 

After spending years at the helm of US universities struggling to make ends meet, since returning to Japan it was “refreshing to be in a situation where you’re expanding”, he said. 

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“People are coming to you about, ‘OK, what can we do that is going to connect cultures and countries?’ As opposed to, ‘OK, what department do I cut?’”

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com