The purpose of this paper is threefold: (i) to promote partnership and outreach at Hiroshima University; (ii) to describe the awareness and response of faculty at the Japanese national university corporations with regard to the transformation of national universities as university corporations; and (iii) to analyze the research and development of the service mission of Japanese universities from the perspective of governing institutions of higher education. The analysis was conducted based on the experiences of the two authors as practitioners: one is a faculty member in charge of outreach at a national university corporation who has also worked at MITI (equivalent to the current Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry), a professional service firm, and a start-up company;the other is a practitioner in the fields of public management, regional science, and technology policy. Ninety faculty members at a major national university corporation were interviewed immediately after its incorporation in April 2004. The authors analyzed their awareness about the academic profession and the challenges in organizational management of the national university corporations based on the comparison with private professional organizations. It was found that the response toward the transformation of universities into an“ entrepreneurial university,"as termed by B. R. Clark, has potential at the individual faculty level. However, at the organizational level,a major managerial challenge was suggested: Japanese national universities have transformed systems through“ tough management" such as an introduction of a system to hire academic professionals based on a certain term. On the other hand, they have maintained a traditional management style based on Japanese organizational practices, including the seniority system. The specific concern was that the extent to which ayoung faculty member will contribute responsibly to the management of a university corporation is uncertain and that their motivation toward a good education as well as morale might be lowered.In conclusion, it is impetrative for national university corporations to plan career designs such that they are appealing to academic professionals as career paths and to implement organizational decentralization based ona strategic plan. In other words, a management reform exemplified by New Public Management is necessary to facilitate the entrepreneurship of the academic profession. The views expressed in this paper do not reflect the opinions authorized by the above organizations that the authors belong to.