Meiji government greatly admired the German government bureaucracy, largely dominated by law school graduates, and it sought to absorb the German prototype into the unique Japanese model. Inspired by the American, British, and French models on top of a predominantly-German prototype, its modern higher education system became a catalyzing impetus that propelled Japan's development as a major world power during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. At the higher education level, Japan sought to incorporate a number of higher education ideas to suit its national needs. Many books, manuscripts, and documents from the West were translated and foreign professors were common during the Meiji era to disseminate Western knowledge in the arts and sciences as well as Western pedagogical teaching methods. For a modern university model, Japan incorporated many Prussian elements found in that of Germany as the German Empire at the time was similar to Japan in terms of goals for colonial expansion and national development. The German model continued to inspire the Japanese higher education system until the end of World War I. During the American occupation of World War II, Japan incorporated higher education ideas developed in the United States to modernize its higher education for the contemporary era. The contemporary Japanese higher education system now boasts elements incorporated from the United States on top of its European origins. The expansion and development of modern higher education in Japan has contributed to its economic growth after World War II which continued on until the late 1980s. University Entrance University entrance is the traditional route taken by Japanese students to enter the gateway of higher education as it is by far the most prestigious form of higher education in Japan. Unlike the usage of grade point averages and percentages used in countries like the United States and Canada as a yardstick for eligibility, entrance to universities based largely on the scores that students achieved in entrance examinations (). People enrolled in undergraduate schools are awarded bachelor's degrees which take four to six years. Graduate schools award master's (2 years), doctoral (3 years), and professional degrees (2–3 years). Though 88.7 percent of Japanese universities are private, the top ten universities in Japan are elite research institutions where 8 of them are national (University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tohoku University, Kyushu University, Hokkaido University, Osaka University, Nagoya University, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology) and the remaining two