Japanese universities lagging in global rankings | Tokyo

Japanese universities are lagging far behind their US and British counterparts in global rankings compiled by a British education journal. The Times Higher Education on Wednesday published its World University Rankings 2014-2015. It rates universities on 13 performance indicators, including research content, citations of published work and international outlook. The latest rankings show the top 12 universities are all in the United States and Britain. The University of Tokyo remains Asia's top learning institution in 23rd place, the same ranking it achieved last year. It's closely trailed by the National University of Singapore, which climbed one notch to 25th place. The University of Hong Kong was 43rd, China's Peking University 48th, and South Korea's Seoul National University 50th. Apart from the University of Tokyo, Japanese universities dropped in the rankings, while many of their Asian counterparts rose. Kyoto University came in at 59, the Tokyo Institute of Technology at 141, Osaka University at 157 and Tohoku University at 165. The journal urges Japanese universities to become active in international research projects and accept more students from abroad.