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The story
Heian Jogakuin University in Kyoto’s Kamigyo Ward plans to go co-ed starting in April 2028 and rename itself to the (tentative) “Kyoto Regional Co-Creation University,” according to reporting on the school’s operating corporation. The move comes amid falling enrollment, with the FY2026 student body reportedly down to just 354.
On 5ch’s Current News+ board, a thread about the renaming sparked a wide-ranging discussion — jokes about the university’s naming history, comparisons with other Kyoto-area women’s universities like Doshisha Women’s, Kyoto Women’s, and Konan Women’s, and even remarks that women’s colleges are shrinking in the US too. Opinion was notably split over whether the “Heian” name should be kept.
10/4 (Sun) 11:05
Yomiuri Shimbun Online
It has been learned, through reporting to the operating school corporation, that Heian Jogakuin University (Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto) will go co-ed starting in April 2028. Declining enrollment is cited as the reason.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
From now on maybe we'll start seeing male 'hostesses' too (嬢/-jo, the 'girl/hostess' suffix in the school's name)
Back in the day, they sure took good care of me.
Heian University >>> Keio University >>> Meiji University >>> Taisho University >>> Showa University >>> Teikyo Heisei University (the joke: Heian, Keio, Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei are all old Japanese era names, listed in chronological order from oldest to newest)
'Kyoto Regional Whatever University' be like: 'That's it! Why didn't you say so sooner!'
Between Showa and Taisho, Showa should rank higher — it's got a med school.
Nara University: 'Ha! I win!!' (the Nara period came even before the Heian period)
'Heijo's big sister' (He, Ne) — Heijo = shorthand for Heian Jogakuin
'went nuts one day' (Ar, Kr)
'and started screaming' (Xe, Rn)
At my high school we learned it as:
'Heijo's big sister'
'got drunk on booze'
'and started screaming'
I think keeping the 'Heian' name would've been the better call.
It's like 3-4 tiers below Doshisha and Ritsumeikan.
Kyoto's strength is having so many universities that there's a school for pretty much every level.
Reiwa Health Sciences University < Heisei Teikyo University < Showa University < Taisho University < Meiji University < Keio University <<<<< Heian University
Man, the gap between Meiji and Taisho is brutal.
Wait, is 'Heian' even an era name?
Shut down every unnecessary university, junior college, and vocational school.
Start with Tokyo.
Stop sucking young people out of the countryside for no reason.
There's a thing called the '2035 cliff' (referring to the projected drop-off in Japan's 18-year-old population).
It'll probably close down eventually.
Uh, it's a girls' school that's been around since the Meiji era, you know?
I went to Ritsumeikan, but I did go to a mixer with girls from Heian Jogakuin once — this was still back in the 20th century, I think at Kushihachi in Hakubaicho.
Wait, isn't Konan Women's University going co-ed next year too and merging into Konan University? (mind blown)
According to Koichi Hosokawa, professor emeritus at Japan Women's University (per a President Online article dated November 27, 2025), on women's colleges:
> Even in the US, there were about 200 at their peak in 1960, but mergers and the shift to co-education have shrunk that down to around 30 today.
★American women's colleges are declining too
America's seven elite women's colleges, the "Seven Sisters,"
once held a status rivaling the Ivy League,
but that number has now shrunk to five.
Radcliffe College was absorbed into Harvard University,
and Vassar College went co-ed (after turning down a merger proposal from Yale).
Notable alumnae include:
Hillary Clinton (America's first female presidential candidate, former Secretary of State, former First Lady)
and Madeleine Albright (the first female Secretary of State) —
both graduates of Wellesley College, one of the Seven Sisters.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Women’s colleges going co-ed is nothing unusual these days. As the Japan Women’s University professor emeritus noted, even in the US the prestigious “Seven Sisters” have shrunk from seven schools at their peak down to five, as mergers and co-education have taken hold. With Japan’s 18-year-old population shrinking due to the falling birthrate, the sustainability of the “women’s college” model itself is being questioned — in both Japan and the US alike.
One figure that’s easy to misread is the “354 students” number — that refers only to the university itself. Heian Jogakuin is a school corporation dating back to the Meiji era, and its other institutions, like its middle and high schools, will keep operating separately. This isn’t a closure; it’s a co-ed conversion that comes with department restructuring and a rename. Some comments on the thread calling it “a university I’ve never even heard of” or saying “it’ll close eventually” don’t quite match reality, given how long the school has actually been around.
Where the thread split was over whether to keep the “Heian” name or go with something new that leans on Kyoto’s brand recognition. There were also plenty of comparisons to other schools going co-ed and rebranding around the same time, like Konan Women’s University — suggesting this restructuring of women’s colleges is an industry-wide trend, not just something happening at one school.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Current News+) thread “[University] Heian Jogakuin University to go co-ed, renamed (tentative) ‘Kyoto Regional Co-Creation University’… FY2026 enrollment drops to 354.”
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