The three types of universities differ significantly in the source of their research funding and in the emphasis of their research. (See Table 2.)

Looking at the breakdown of research expenditures, the ratio of labor costs (Jinkenhi) to the total is shown in Table 2. In the field of social sciences and humanities, the labor cost ratio was high throughout all three categories of universities. In natural sciences and engineering, the ratios in private and public universities were comparatively high, while the ratio in national universities was low. It can thus be said that national universities have the strongest presence in Japan’s university research in terms of research expenditure especially in natural sciences and engineering.