The nation's first universities run by private stock incorporated companies will probably be established in April, education ministry officials said Wednesday.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry asked one of its panels to deliberate on whether to allow Tokyo Legal Mind K.K. and Digital Hollywood Corp. to operate the two universities in special deregulated business zones, the officials said.
The panel is expected to recommend in February that the ministry permit the companies to establish the universities, they said.
Tokyo Legal Mind, a preparatory school in Minato Ward, Tokyo, for people taking the bar exam, hopes to set up campuses in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward and Osaka.
LEC Tokyo Legal Mind University, as the four-year college will be called, will have capacity for 160 students. Its curriculum will help those taking exams to qualify as lawyers and certified public accountants.
Digital Hollywood, a multimedia business school based in Chiyoda Ward, plans to open campuses of its planned Graduate School of Digital Content in Chiyoda Ward and Osaka. Together, the school will have 80 students.
The two-year school will offer curricula for people hoping to become producers and engineers in the fields of television, film and video games.
In October, both Chiyoda Ward and Osaka received approval to create special deregulated zones, which are in line with the structural reforms advocated by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.