ITS Research Intelligence

Japan University Research Rankings

Compare Japan universities using recent research output, citation impact, growth and a transparent research-performance score.

Research landscape

The current ITS Research Intelligence dataset contains 602 index-ready universities in Japan. Across those institutions, the average five-year research output is approximately 2,300 works and the average five-year citation count is approximately 17,448. The average publication-growth signal is 48.3%. These figures describe the institutions that pass the public quality gate; they are not intended to represent every tertiary institution in the country.

Country rankings are useful for benchmarking because they reduce some of the structural differences that make global comparisons difficult. They still should not be treated as a complete assessment of institutional quality: teaching, student outcomes, funding levels, research field mix and institutional mission are outside this research-performance score. The value of the page is in seeing who is producing research, how that activity is changing, and where citation visibility is concentrated.

Top research universities in Japan

Rank	University	Country	Score	5-year works	5-year citations	Growth
#1	The University of Tokyo	Japan	84.7	98,246	985,007	-2.0%
#2	Kyoto University	Japan	80.5	63,940	579,965	-3.7%
#3	The University of Osaka	Japan	80.3	47,425	448,774	-4.8%
#4	Tohoku University	Japan	79.6	49,115	428,383	1.1%
#5	Kyushu University	Japan	77.3	41,882	333,773	-1.5%
#6	Nagoya University	Japan	77.2	37,619	338,947	5.3%
#7	Hiroshima University	Japan	75.7	23,470	206,705	5.4%
#8	Hokkaido University	Japan	75.6	35,601	291,140	2.9%
#9	University of Tsukuba	Japan	75.5	29,802	232,846	3.1%
#10	Keio University	Japan	75.5	26,740	220,324	3.7%
#11	Korea University	Japan	75.0	6,925	75,282	108.0%
#12	Kobe University	Japan	74.0	19,826	157,815	3.9%
#13	Juntendo University	Japan	73.9	11,995	116,506	31.8%
#14	Tokyo University of Science	Japan	73.4	12,635	110,147	16.4%
#15	Chiba University	Japan	73.1	17,283	138,443	6.2%
#16	Kumamoto University	Japan	72.9	11,118	104,882	-3.4%
#17	The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI	Japan	72.7	6,669	78,386	-6.5%
#18	Waseda University	Japan	72.0	21,010	149,015	-10.0%
#19	National Institute for Environmental Studies	Japan	71.8	5,197	63,152	-0.3%
#20	Kanazawa University	Japan	71.7	13,036	99,889	3.8%
#21	Nagasaki University	Japan	71.6	10,995	94,005	1.0%
#22	Yokohama City University	Japan	71.6	11,168	98,103	2.6%
#23	Niigata University	Japan	71.6	10,137	89,806	5.4%
#24	Tokyo Metropolitan University	Japan	71.4	12,710	100,092	32.8%
#25	Kindai University	Japan	71.4	11,116	101,236	17.5%
#26	Okayama University	Japan	71.3	15,290	105,623	9.0%
#27	Shinshu University	Japan	70.9	8,466	78,944	-7.3%
#28	Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University	Japan	70.8	6,182	58,540	22.0%
#29	Tokai University	Japan	69.9	8,226	72,895	-3.6%
#30	Tokyo Medical University	Japan	69.5	5,769	60,516	-1.3%
#31	Jichi Medical University	Japan	69.1	8,261	67,662	4.0%
#32	University of Toyama	Japan	68.9	7,911	65,473	5.6%
#33	Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine	Japan	68.9	6,015	54,517	6.5%
#34	Nagoya City University	Japan	68.5	7,167	57,028	16.2%
#35	Nippon Medical School	Japan	68.4	5,436	52,885	2.8%
#36	Kurume University	Japan	68.3	4,783	44,436	4.1%
#37	Fujita Health University	Japan	67.9	5,978	48,961	21.4%
#38	Gifu University	Japan	67.8	7,977	56,948	2.4%
#39	Yamagata University	Japan	67.8	5,070	45,194	-1.9%
#40	Nihon University	Japan	67.6	10,626	69,678	0.9%
#41	Kitasato University	Japan	67.6	7,823	57,255	1.5%
#42	Jikei University School of Medicine	Japan	67.6	7,042	55,548	3.1%
#43	University of the Sacred Heart	Japan	67.5	4,138	25,294	108.0%
#44	Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology	Japan	67.5	7,396	50,286	9.4%
#45	Kyorin University	Japan	67.2	3,855	36,744	11.2%
#46	Tokyo Women's Medical University	Japan	67.2	5,681	44,435	-5.5%
#47	Ehime University	Japan	67.0	7,962	53,898	-10.1%
#48	Saitama Medical University	Japan	67.0	6,405	49,173	15.8%
#49	Tokushima University	Japan	67.0	7,490	50,244	-3.8%
#50	Hirosaki University	Japan	66.9	5,808	46,192	5.2%
#51	Gunma University	Japan	66.7	6,983	48,644	-4.6%
#52	Fukushima Medical University	Japan	66.7	6,699	51,486	1.2%
#53	University of the Ryukyus	Japan	66.6	5,965	41,448	30.9%
#54	Shiga University of Medical Science	Japan	66.6	3,394	32,506	-3.4%
#55	Kansai Medical University	Japan	66.5	4,606	38,648	10.6%
#56	SHOWA Medical University	Japan	66.5	5,327	38,777	10.8%
#57	Wakayama Medical University	Japan	66.5	3,879	35,305	4.4%
#58	Toho University	Japan	66.4	6,745	48,247	-0.2%
#59	Fukuoka University	Japan	66.3	5,160	41,017	-2.8%
#60	Kyoto Bunkyo University	Japan	66.2	1,002	19,224	13.5%
#61	Nara Institute of Science and Technology	Japan	66.2	5,505	35,269	11.9%
#62	Sapporo Medical University	Japan	66.0	4,098	32,680	14.7%
#63	Nara Medical University	Japan	66.0	4,387	36,763	-0.3%
#64	St. Marianna University School of Medicine	Japan	65.9	4,681	39,671	9.3%
#65	University of Aizu	Japan	65.8	2,306	24,509	14.0%
#66	Teikyo University	Japan	65.8	6,020	41,220	7.5%
#67	Hyogo Medical University	Japan	65.8	2,734	29,469	-45.3%
#68	Kagoshima University	Japan	65.7	9,180	47,059	11.6%
#69	University of Occupational and Environmental Health Japan	Japan	65.6	4,534	37,115	-15.9%
#70	Mie University	Japan	65.6	6,460	41,458	-2.7%
#71	Ritsumeikan University	Japan	65.5	9,273	53,298	19.0%
#72	University of Yamanashi	Japan	65.5	5,169	36,826	7.6%
#73	Shimane University	Japan	65.5	5,678	38,998	7.8%
#74	Osaka Metropolitan University	Japan	65.4	8,227	45,787	239.8%
#75	Saga University	Japan	65.2	5,646	38,690	12.4%
#76	Yamaguchi University	Japan	65.1	7,756	44,104	2.9%
#77	University of Electro-Communications	Japan	65.0	6,068	37,671	15.8%
#78	Iwate Medical University	Japan	64.8	3,211	28,321	-3.6%
#79	Kyushu Institute of Technology	Japan	64.8	6,001	37,183	11.0%
#80	Tottori University	Japan	64.8	5,834	36,587	3.9%
#81	University of Miyazaki	Japan	64.7	5,052	34,346	10.1%
#82	Aichi Medical University	Japan	64.6	3,716	30,693	6.6%
#83	Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, Kyoto University	Japan	64.6	972	15,345	-23.7%
#84	Kagawa University	Japan	64.5	4,507	32,706	-4.4%
#85	International University of Health and Welfare	Japan	64.4	6,147	45,351	4.5%
#86	Yokohama National University	Japan	64.3	6,599	36,746	17.1%
#87	Osaka International University	Japan	64.2	981	13,395	37.8%
#88	Rikkyo University	Japan	64.1	2,447	22,190	11.0%
#89	Saitama University	Japan	64.0	4,451	28,956	10.7%
#90	Hamamatsu University School of Medicine	Japan	63.8	5,702	33,355	-10.3%
#91	Kyoto University of Education	Japan	63.8	1,588	13,199	5.7%
#92	Nagoya Institute of Technology	Japan	63.6	5,061	31,521	5.7%
#93	Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	Japan	63.5	3,974	25,581	-0.7%
#94	Sapporo University	Japan	63.4	1,539	16,216	38.1%
#95	Kanazawa Medical University	Japan	63.2	2,639	21,324	-2.9%
#96	Kawasaki Medical School	Japan	63.2	2,874	22,822	0.9%
#97	Shizuoka University	Japan	63.2	5,673	30,607	7.4%
#98	Hosei University	Japan	63.0	4,214	30,614	-3.7%
#99	Kyoto Institute of Technology	Japan	62.9	3,286	22,999	12.2%
#100	Kōchi University	Japan	62.9	4,301	26,257	2.6%

Research fields where Japan universities rank

Number of Japan universities in the top 100 of each ITS research-field ranking.

Dentistry (9)Immunology and Microbiology (9)Chemical Engineering (8)Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (6)Physics and Astronomy (5)Earth and Planetary Sciences (5)Materials Science (4)Veterinary (4)Chemistry (4)Environmental Science (1)Economics, Econometrics and Finance (1)Medicine (1)Engineering (1)

Transparent methodology

How ITS Research Score v3 is constructed

One formula applies to every index-ready institution, using the five most recent complete calendar years: 25% research output, 25% citations, 20% h-index and 5% i10-index (log-normalized so the largest universities do not dominate linearly), 15% citation impact (the institution’s percentile on citations per work, reduced below 500 works so small samples cannot win by chance), 5% publication growth and 5% international-collaboration share. When collaboration data is not yet available, the other weights are rescaled.

Data-quality controls: the unfinished current year is never counted, and a year in which recorded output jumps to more than three times the institution’s usual level while being at least 90% open access is treated as a bulk dataset or repository deposit and scored at the usual level. An affiliation check also removes institutions whose papers mostly do not name them in the author address (OpenAlex sometimes assigns a large university’s papers to a namesake school or college). Raw data are kept and every adjustment is logged. Open-access share and topic diversity are published as separate rankings and do not affect the main score. Citation impact is not field-normalized.

These indicators assess research activity only. They do not measure teaching quality, student experience, employability, reputation, finances or accreditation. Missing data are left missing rather than fabricated.