The purpose of this paper is to typologically examine fundamental philosophies of private universities, using descriptive materials in 1986 published by the universities. The findings of this examination are the following; 1) Fundamental philosophies tend to emphasize the encouragement of the students and the emphasis are classified into six types; ""industrial development"" (type 1), diligence (type 2), leadership (type 3), cultural enlightment (type 4), Christian mentality (type 5), and Buddhist mentality (type 6). 2) Women's universities give greater importance to philosophies type4-6 than to type1-3. Especially, more women's universities established in 1948-1965 than ones established in other periods encouraged women to be a good wife and wise mother. 3) From 1987 onward, more women's universities with philosophy type4 tend to turn into coeducational universities than others.