The N.C.A.A., a multibillion-dollar organization alternately respected and ridiculed for its stewardship of college sports in the United States, has found a prominent new international admirer: Japan.

This week, the N.C.A.A. president, Mark Emmert, is traveling to Tokyo to consult with government officials, sports industry leaders and at least 20 university presidents about Japan’s desire to form its own collegiate athletics association. Japanese colleges are considering modeling their new system after one that has served as the regulatory body in the United States for more than a century.

If successful, Japan would become one of the few countries outside the United States to establish an N.C.A.A.-type governing body for college athletics. Already, eight Japanese universities, which currently compete on a club sports model, have begun accepting government funding to shore up their athletic departments.

In a telephone interview on Sunday from Taiwan, the site of this year’s World University Games, Emmert described his impending Japanese visit as “exploratory” and driven mostly by what he hears from American university leaders looking to bolster their international standing.