and China. Unlike higher education in some other countries, public universities are generally regarded as more prestigious than private universities, especially the National Seven Universities (University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tohoku University, Kyushu University, Hokkaido University, Osaka University, and Nagoya University). As the Japanese economy is largely scientific and technological based, the labor market demands people who have achieved some form of higher education, particularly related to science and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge when searching for employment. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the percentage of Japanese going on to any higher education institution in the eighteen-year-old cohort was 80.6 percent, with 52.6 percent of students going on to a university, 4.7 percent to a junior college, 0.9 percent to a college of technology and the remaining 22.4 percent attending a correspondence school, the University of the Air or a specialized training college. History The modern Japanese higher education system was adapted from a number of methods and ideas inspired from Western education systems that were integrated with their traditional Shinto, Buddhist, and Confucianist pedagogical philosophies. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, many major reforms were introduced in the field of higher education across Japan, which contributed to individual work of students as well as the nation's overall originality, creativity, individuality, identity, and internationalization of higher education. Plunging itself through an active process of Westernization during the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan sought to revitalize its entire education system, especially at the higher education level to transmit Western knowledge for modern industrialization. Many Japanese students were sent abroad to Europe to study as were a number of foreign scholars from Western countries were introduced to Japan as well. During the 1880s, Japan sought to search for a higher education system prototype to model in order to suit its national needs. In 1881, the government decided to convert its institutional model, influenced from a variety of Western countries such as Great Britain, the United States and France, to a strictly German model as the Prussian-oriented model of higher education greatly interested the Meiji government at the time. Germany served as the largest inspiration for the modern Japanese higher education system, as German universities were regarded as one of the most innovative in all of Europe in addition to 19th-century Germany being close to Japan in its goals for industrialization. Furthermore, the