The rapid development of higher education in the postwar period has given rise to various problems, and higher education studies in Japan have developed in response to them. What have been the major issues, and how did academic research respond to them, in postwar Japan? This article delineates an outline of higher education studies in general, describes a few major research paradigms set forth by generations of researchers, and examines the present status of higher education in Japan and the challenges it presents for higher education studies. (Contains 1 table.)