Ministry to Implement 5-Year Bachelor’s-Master’s Degree Curriculum; Hopes to Raise Number of Japanese Students Who Seek Graduate Degrees

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:01 JST, October 8, 2025

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has decided to systematically implement a curriculum that will allow students to complete a bachelor’s and a master’s program in a total of five years, instead of the current six years.

The ministry aims to revise relevant regulations, including its Standards for Establishment of Graduate Schools, as early as this academic year, hoping to start this integrated study system from spring 2026. The new curriculum is expected to increase graduate school enrollment, thereby fostering the development of globally competitive, highly specialized professionals.

The ministry will start discussing details after presenting a plan for combining undergraduate and graduate education to its Central Council for Education.

Typically, a bachelor’s program takes four years to complete, followed by a two-year master’s program and an additional three years for a doctoral degree. The proposed curriculum would allow students to complete bachelor’s-master’s programs in five years.

Students would go through a four-year bachelor’s program, followed by a one-year master’s program. The universities would decide for themselves whether to allow students to earn early credits toward their master’s degree while still working on their bachelor’s or to simply shorten a master’s program.

Before giving universities the green light to shorten the period for their master’s programs, the ministry would review curricula they submitted to ensure the quality of education they provided would not decline.

Currently, a shorter school period is permitted for students who have met specific requirements, allowing them to finish undergraduate programs in three years or master’s programs in one year.

Some universities, including Hitotsubashi University and Keio University, have already taken advantage of this mechanism to offer integrated undergraduate-master’s programs for top-performing students. The University of Tokyo also plans to adopt a five-year integrated curriculum — a four-year bachelor’s program followed by a one-year master’s program — for its new College of Design, which is scheduled to open in autumn 2027.

Japan has fewer professionals with master’s or doctoral degrees than developed countries in Europe and North America. Only about 10% of bachelor’s degree holders in Japan pursue postgraduate education, significantly trailing countries like the United Kingdom and France, where over 30% do. By systematically implementing this integrated five-year curriculum, the education ministry hopes to increase Japan’s number of specialized professionals and raise the country’s level of global competitiveness.