Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy


The Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, also known as Hitotsubashi ICS, is the graduate business school of Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan.
Hitotsubashi ICS was the first "professional graduate school" established in Japan. The school was founded by Harvard Business School professor Hirotaka Takeuchi, its first dean, in 1998, and admitted students in 2000.
ICS is housed in the National Center of Sciences and located at Chiyoda Campus, the birthplace of Hitotsubashi University, Chiyoda, Tokyo.

Programs

With the aim to become a Center for Excellence, Business education at Hitotsubashi ICS is committed to develop global leaders. Hitotsubashi ICS has three programs: International Business Strategy, and an EMBA.

MBA Program

The first full-time MBA program offered by a Japanese national university taught entirely in English.
Students can apply for either a one year program or a two year program. Hitotsubashi ICS' students have access to Japan's real business network, as well as to the .
Hitotsubashi ICS was recently ranked as the No. 1 Business School in Japan by QS Rankings.

EMBA Program

the EMBA is 1-year, all-English language, part-time program with blended learning, combining online and in classroom sessions. Students of the EMBA program have access to Hitotsubashi ICS' local and global networks to explore both the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese and the Western management practices.
The EMBA class also takes three one-week immersion trips outside Japan to experience the world’s diversity of business opportunities, in emerging economies, for example, or driven by technological disruption.

DBA Program

The school offers a flexible DBA degree, which is completed over three years or more and can be done while working.

Teaching Staff

The Porter Prize was established to bestow recognition on Japanese companies that have achieved and maintained superior profitability in a particular industry by implementing unique strategies based on innovations in products, processes, and ways of managing. The name of the award is derived from Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard University, a leading authority on strategy with a longstanding interest in Japan.
Professor Porter's relationship with Hitotsubashi University dates back to the early 1980s, when he conducted joint research on Japan with a Hitotsubashi team as part of a larger study, which was published in Professor Porter's 1990 book, "The Competitive Advantage of Nations". Professor Porter's book, "Can Japan Compete?", which also involved joint research with Hitotsubashi, challenges long-held views about the sources of Japan's economic miracle and offers a new approach to competing based on strategy as the path for the future. The book, which was selected as one of the top three non-fiction books of 2000 by The Economist, was co-authored by Hirotaka Takeuchi of Hitotsubashi University.
Professor Porter has had a relationship with Hitotsubashi University for almost 20 years. He was invited to be the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of its newly established Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy in 2000. The Professor made two trips to Tokyo on behalf of Hitotsubashi University that year, once in April at the opening of ICS' evening programs taught in Japanese and in October at the opening of its day-time programs taught entirely in English.
Professor Porter has donated his time for these speeches and for many other joint efforts over the years. The Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University proposed to establish a new prize in appreciation of Professor Porter's generosity and in support of his lifelong dedication to the development of the theory and practice of competitive strategy.

Alliances and Partnerships

BEST Alliance

Hitotsubashi ICS is one of the three founding member institutions of the BEST Alliance program, which is sponsored by the governments of China, South Korea and Japan to encourage trilateral exchange of students and increased cooperation in higher education in East Asia. The BEST Alliance grant will support activities associated with the BEST Business School Alliance between Hitotsubashi ICS, Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management and Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Business. The students who participate in the double degree program will spend their 1st year in their home institution, and 2nd year in the host institution. Upon completion, the students will receive an MBA degree from both institutions.

Global Network for Advanced Management

Hitotsubashi ICS is a member of the Global Network for Advanced Management, which is a collaboration of graduate schools of business that seeks to foster intellectual ties among business schools, students and deans. The network's membership includes following graduate management schools: