Faced with a declining number of young people and increased competition at home, some of Japan's top universities are opening up offices in bustling China to lure its young bright minds to Japan.
The University of Tokyo, widely regarded as Japan's top academic institution, became the latest entrant Wednesday in a field of about a dozen universities setting up activity bases in China.
"There is still much to do in terms of academic field exchanges in the Asian region, in China in particular," the university's president, Takeshi Sasaki, said at a news conference to announce its plan to open a liaison office in Beijing next April.
The trend began when Hiroshima University opened an office in Beijing in October 2002. Since then, established institutions that include Hitotsubashi University and Waseda University have established bases either inside Chinese universities or in separate buildings.