The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) established the "21st Century COE (Centers of Excellence) Program" in FY2002 to elevate Japanese universities to the world's highest echelons, while fostering people of talent and creativity who will be qualified to assume roles as world leaders. This 5 year program, which expired in 2007, succeeded in doing what it was meant to do. MEXT needed a post-21st Century COE Program to meet the growing challenges of advancing globalization, which led to the establishment of the Global COE Program in FY2007.