Photo/Illutration An image of a Zen University student taking an online course (Provided by the Preparatory Association of the Nippon Foundation and Dwango Educational Institute)

Information technology giant Dwango Co. and the Nippon Foundation are planning to establish a large online university, which was approved by an advisory panel to the education minister on Oct. 29.

Tentatively named Zen University, it will admit up to 3,500 students who will take all classes online. The university is planning to open in spring 2025.

For most classes, the students can decide when and where to listen to the lecture videos. Annual tuition will be 380,000 yen ($2,500).

All faculty members will be in the department of intelligence information society and students can select lectures from six fields, including information and digital industry.

For interested students, Zen University will also provide opportunities for overseas study.

The Council for University Establishment and School Corporation, made up of experts, had initially raised concerns about the university’s plan to admit 5,000 students a year, leading to a lower admission quota.

The council had called on the university’s operators to evaluate whether its admission quota was reasonable and encouraged the university to consider ways of bringing its students together, such as through school festivals.

Since 2016, Dwango has been operating online high schools under a separate school corporation.

Its two high schools now have about 30,000 students and a total of about 9,000 students graduated this spring. The institutions were set up in part to accommodate youth who had difficulties attending regular high schools, often because they faced bullying.

A woman living in the Tohoku region whose child remains at home rather than attending school welcomed the new university because students could study from home at a reasonable cost.

A teacher at a public high school in the Chugoku region of western Japan said students in the region might consider Zen University as an attractive alternative because they would not have to pay the high costs of living associated with attending a university in an urban area.

But those affiliated with private universities were raising concerns about the low tuition of Zen University.

According to the Promotion and Mutual Aid Corporation for Private Schools of Japan, a record 59 percent or so of private universities failed to fill their admission quotas this spring.

A high-ranking official of a large private university in the Tokyo metropolitan area said more institutions could fail to meet their admission quotas since Zen University is open to admitting a number of students equivalent to those of about 20 small universities.

(This article was written by Amane Shimazaki and Asako Miyasaka, a senior staff writer.)

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