Abstract: After World War II, Japan's higher education has experienced four stages, namely, the period of system establishment, rapid growth, stagnation & adjustment, and secondary expansion. The evolution path of Japans higher education policy has important implications for China in the following aspects: based on its own national conditions, absorbing the experience of other countries; attaching importance to the guiding role of policy and actively carrying out policy analysis; adjusting the development focus of higher education in time to ensure the synchronous development with the economy.

Key words: Japan, higher education, education policy, implication