（1）The University Order and the Growth of Universities

As we have seen, the reform of the university system was initiated on the basis of the recommendations of the Special Council for Education immediately upon completion of that body's deliberations. Thus on December 6, 1918, the University Order was promulgated. This Order and the University Regulations of March, 1919, came into force on April 1, 1919. On the other hand, the 1919 Imperial University Order was promulgated on February 7, 1919, to be applied solely to the Imperial University system. This 1919 Imperial University Order came into force on the same day as the University Order mentioned above, involving the abolition of the former 1886 Imperial University Order. Article 1 of the University Order indicated the nature of the universities as places where the teaching of academic theories and their applications as well as their profound research necessary for the state were to be pursued and where such conduct would be combined with efforts to realize perfection in humanity and national sentiment. The composition of a university might include the faculties (gakubu) of law, medicine, engineering, literature, science, agriculture, economics and commerce. A combination of several faculties would constitute a university and in special cases a single-faculty institution might be established. Moreover, where appropriate, one faculty might be composed of plural academic fields, i.e. both law and literature, both commerce and economics, etc. A research course was to be set up within each faculty, and in a university with several research courses, these research courses could be combined into a graduate school for facilitating communication and cooperation among the research courses. Unlike the Graduate School of the earlier Imperial Universities, which preceded the setting up of these research courses, the new graduate schools were now closely connected with the main university.

The University Order effected remarkable changes in the university system and thus is considered a landmark in the development of higher educational system. The Order, as we have seen, recognized local public and private institutions as well as the Imperial Universities and new government schools. Local public universities could be established only by prefectures according to original provisions of the Order; and the approval of the government could be given only in cases of special needs for these institutions. On the other hand, those who could gain the approval of the government for establishing private universities were limited to those foundational juristic persons whose activities were exclusive to the administration of these private universities excepting special cases where the establishment by other foundational juristic persons within the school administration could also be approved. The foremost priority in the establishment and maintenance of private universities was a strong financial foundation as called for in the University Order.

The University Order recognized the establishment of single-faculty universities and a move in that direction began with the giving of approval to found the first prefectural Osaka Medical University in November, 1919. Next year, in April, 1920, government Tokyo Higher Commercial School was reorganized into Tokyo Commercial University. Thereafter, under the January 20, 1928 revision of the University Order the first municipal Osaka Commercial University, formerly Osaka City Higher Commercial School, was organized in 1928 and Kobe Higher Commercial School became Kobe Commercial University in 1929. In the technical field Tokyo Higher Technical School and Osaka Higher Technical School were reorganized and granted university status as Tokyo Institute of Technology and Osaka Institute of Technology in that same year. This upgrading was carried out relatively early in the case of schools specializing in medicine. In 1922, among the government medical specialized schools those in Niigata and Okayama were the first to have their status raised to that of medical universities. They were followed by medical specialized schools in Chiba, Kanazawa and Nagasaki in 1923. In 1929 and in 1931 jurisdiction over the medical universities of Kumamoto and Aichi was transferred respectively from those prefectures to the national government. The founding of Tokyo Arts and Sciences University and Hiroshima Arts and Sciences University in April, 1929, played an important role in the spread and development of training for teachers in middle level education.

The Imperial Universities, which had been founded prior to the University Order in Tokyo, Kyoto, Tohoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido, had the number of their faculties increased. Moreover, new Imperial Universities were set up in Osaka in 1931 and in Nagoya in 1939, resulting in a total of seven Imperial Universities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. Seoul Imperial University was founded in 1924 and Taipei Imperial University in 1928. While the former institution came under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Korea and the latter under the Governor-General of Taiwan, both came under the provisions of the University Order and the 1919 Imperial University Order.

Before the promulgation of the University Order in 1918, there had been five Imperial Universities with a total enrollment of 9,040 students. By 1940 there were seven Imperial Universities and twelve other government universities including six medical universities, two commercial universities, one technical university, two arts and sciences universities and one theological university. These nineteen government institutions had an enrollment of 30, 169 students.

The first instance of approval being given for the establishment of a prefectural university was Osaka Medical University in November, 1919, as mentioned above. The establishment of Aichi Medical University was approved as a prefectural school in the following year and the medical specialized schools in Kyoto and Kumamoto were reorganized respectively as Kyoto Prefectural Medical University in 1921 and Kumamoto Prefectural Medical University in 1922.

For some time in the past, private schools had petitioned for upgrading to university status and following the promulgation of the University Order this movement gained momentum. Foundational juristic persons who intended to establish private universities were required to have a certain amount of endowment which could draw enough interest to support the universities, as well as to possess facilities necessary for the use of the universities, and money (or government bonds or other valuable securities designated by the Minister of Education) corresponding to this amount of endowment was required to be deposited to the depositories (kyotakusho) concerned of the government.

In spite of these strict conditions, several private schools managed to raise the initial amount of the deposit and in February, 1920, Keio Gijuku and Waseda achieved university status. In April of that same year, Meiji, Hosei, Chuo, Nihon, Kokugakuin and Doshisha were also upgraded. In addition to the private institutions mentioned above fourteen schools became universities such as Tokyo Jikeikai Medical, Ryukoku, Otani, Senshu, Rikkyo, Ritsumeikan, Kansai, Toyokyokai (later Takushoku), Rissho, Komazawa, Tokyo Agricultural, Nippon Medical, Koyasan and Taisho. The first private schools to receive recognition as universities were those which traditionally had specialized in the study of law. These were followed by religious schools. Altogether within the Taisho era a total of 22 private institutions of higher education were raised to university status.