A record 103 Japanese universities made it onto this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings list, with the nation’s two top universities — the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University — moving up in the standings.

According to THE, the country’s top institution, the University of Tokyo, also known as Todai, climbed to 42nd place, up four places from its worst-ever ranking last year.

Kyoto University secured its position as the nation’s second highest-ranked university, jumping up nine places from last year to 65th — marking its second consecutive year of improvement on the influential ranking that lists over 1,250 of the world’s top institutions.

“This is a nation of immense ingenuity and potential, and we could be witnessing a positive turning point here for its universities,” Phil Baty, THE’s editorial director of global rankings, said in a press release Wednesday. However, he warned that to strengthen its status as a key competitive higher-education power both regionally and globally, Japan “requires a commitment to much greater investment and an intensification of its efforts to internationalize.”

The organization’s rankings are based on the weighted scores of thirteen indicators in five pillars, including learning environment, research, international outlook, research influence and industry income.

THE attributes the surge in Todai’s ranking to improvement in its learning environment (ranked 16th), research (ranked 19th) and industry income performance.

The record high 103 Japanese institutions that made the list surpassed last year’s 89, making Japan the second most-represented country after the United States with 172 institutions. The United Kingdom, with 98 universities in the rankings, lost its second place position for the first time.