China's higher-education star is rising, while Japan's is waning, according to the Times Higher Education's Asia University Rankings 2014. Japan dropped two institutions from the top 100, whereas mainland China added four. But Japan still leads the Asian nations with 20 top-100 universities; China is second with 18, and South Korea third with 14. Thomson Reuters, which collates the data, bases the rankings on 13 indicators, including research and technology transfer. China has advanced mostly as a result of increasing its research expenditure, says a Thomas Reuters spokesperson, whereas Japan's research budget has remained flat.