LONDON - The Times Higher Education magazine published its first Asia University Rankings here on Wednesday.

Japan's Tokyo University topped the list of 100 universities ranked based on the trusted performance indicators used to create the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

Among all, Japan took 22 spots in the top 100 list, whereas China's Taiwan and the Chinese mainland took 17 and 15 respectively, with the Peking University ranking fourth, closely followed by Tsinghua in the sixth slot. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has six universities in the list, all in the top 50.

Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, told Xinhua that the list was a "very promising showing for China."

"Asia is the most exciting and dynamic continent right now in higher education terms. But the overall World University Rankings top 400 list remains dominated by Western nations," Baty added.

"So we are delighted to launch this Asia-only top 100 list to provide deeper and richer insights into the performance of Asia's world-class research institutions, ranked against their regional peers," he said.