There are several lists ranking Japanese universities, often called Hensachi, with most measuring them by their entrance difficulty, or by their alumni's successes.
The system attempts to evaluate the university's strengths and the performance of its alumni, rather than students' prior academic abilities, or the brand of the college.
[3] Its initial aim was to analyze private universities as companies, and conduct a financial analysis of them, which had rarely been attempted before by other mass-media.
It also tried to focus on a practical point of view such as business-academia collaboration, students' academic achievements, and career support.
In 2004, the ranking system was reorganized with more multidimensional factors to capture universities not only as business organizations but also as educational and research institutions.
[3] First, the ranking has a tendency to be affected by single-year factors such as the gain of capital by the sale of assets.