On August 28, 2026, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology announced the key points of its budget request for fiscal year 2027. The general account request amounted to a record high of 8.775 trillion yen, of which 1.0673 trillion yen, in addition to other requests for specific items, was requested for human resource development, which forms the foundation of national strength. Furthermore, 8,645 billion yen was allocated to research and development and human resource development that will drive 17 strategic fields, making the budget request for "human resource development" unprecedented in scale.
Within this framework, the "University and Technical College Function Enhancement Support Project," which assists in the conversion of departments to specific growth sectors, has requested an additional 1,100 billion yen on top of its previous 3,202 billion yen. This project began in fiscal year 2023 and in fiscal year 2025 consisted of three frameworks: a growth sector conversion framework, a highly skilled information technology professional development framework, and a priority sector support framework. From fiscal year 2026, a new "Large-Scale Interdisciplinary Conversion Framework" was established to support large-scale conversions of science and engineering departments, mainly targeting large private universities in metropolitan areas, as well as downsizing of enrollment capacities in humanities and social science departments, with a maximum support of 40 billion yen.
In this budget request, the program framework has been reorganized into three categories: a large-scale interdisciplinary liberal arts conversion framework, a technical college support framework, and a framework for supporting 17 growth sectors. Applications for all three will be accepted until fiscal year 2032. The "large-scale interdisciplinary liberal arts conversion framework" targets public and private universities, and the proposed support amount is to be doubled to a maximum of 80 billion yen. The support period will be up to 10 years, and the program will also include support for implementing advanced interdisciplinary education, such as the introduction of double majors.
The "Support Framework for Colleges of Technology" normally provides 10 billion yen in support, but will increase to 40 billion yen for newly established colleges of technology. This is double the current 20 billion yen and is intended to encourage the establishment of new colleges of technology. The "Support Framework for 17 Growth Sectors" has expanded its scope beyond the previous focus on digital and green fields to include new sectors such as shipbuilding, space, and the content industry. The framework targets undergraduate programs at public and private universities, and graduate programs at national, public, and private universities, and is designed to encourage the strengthening of education and research systems in growth and priority sectors.
