Hagi International University in Yamaguchi Prefecture filed for court protection from creditors in June 2005, owing ¥3.7 billion after the number of freshmen enrollments and students declined sharply.
"There was no other choice" than to initiate bankruptcy procedures, said Masanori Hatachi, 69, president of the institution now renamed Yamaguchi University of Human Welfare and Culture.
Hagi International, formerly a two-year college, had difficulty attracting enough students after it changed to a four-year university in 1999.