University of Tokyo


The University of Tokyo, abbreviated as Todai or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, it was the first of the imperial universities.
The university has ten faculties, 15 graduate schools and enrolls about 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are international students. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is among the top echelon of the select Japanese universities assigned additional funding under the MEXT's Top Global University Project to enhance Japan's global educational competitiveness.
As of 2018, University of Tokyo's alumni, faculty members and researchers include seventeen prime ministers, sixteen Nobel Prize laureates, three Pritzker Prize laureates, three astronauts, and a Fields Medalist.

History

The university was chartered by the Meiji government in 1877 under its current name by amalgamating older government schools for medicine, various traditional scholars and modern learning. It was renamed "the Imperial University" in 1886, and then Tokyo Imperial University in 1897 when the Imperial University system was created. In September 1923, an earthquake and the following fires destroyed about 700,000 volumes of the Imperial University Library. The books lost included the Hoshino Library, a collection of about 10,000 books. The books were the former possessions of Hoshino Hisashi before becoming part of the library of the university and were mainly about Chinese philosophy and history.
In 1947, after Japan's defeat in World War II, it re-assumed its original name. With the start of the new university system in 1949, Todai swallowed up the former First Higher School and the former Tokyo Higher School, which thenceforth assumed the duty of teaching first- and second-year undergraduates, while the faculties on Hongo main campus took care of third- and fourth-year students.
Although the university was founded during the Meiji period, it has earlier roots in the Astronomy Agency, Shoheizaka Study Office, and the Western Books Translation Agency. These institutions were government offices established by the 徳川幕府 Tokugawa shogunate, and played an important role in the importation and translation of books from Europe.
Kikuchi Dairoku, an important figure in Japanese education, served as president of Tokyo Imperial University.
For the 1964 Summer Olympics, the university hosted the running portion of the modern pentathlon event.
On 20 January 2012, Todai announced that it would shift the beginning of its academic year from April to September to align its calendar with the international standard. The shift would be phased in over five years. But this unilateral announcement by the president was received badly and the university abandoned the plans.
According to The Japan Times, the university had 1,282 professors in February 2012. Of those, 58 were women.
In the fall of 2012 and for the first time, the University of Tokyo started two undergraduate programs entirely taught in English and geared toward international students — Programs in English at Komaba — the International Program on Japan in East Asia and the International Program on Environmental Sciences. In 2014, the School of Science at the University of Tokyo introduced an all-English undergraduate transfer program called Global Science Course.

Academics

The University of Tokyo is organized into 10 faculties and 15 graduate schools.
Todai Law School is considered as one of the top Law schools in Japan, ranking top in the number of successful candidates of Japanese Bar Examination in 2009 and 2010. Eduniversal ranked Japanese business schools, and the Faculty of Economics in Todai is placed 4th in Japan.

Research

The University of Tokyo is considered a top research institution of Japan. It receives the largest amount of national grants for research institutions, :ja:科学研究費補助金|Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, receiving 40% more than the University with 2nd largest grants and 90% more than the University with 3rd largest grants. This massive financial investment from the Japanese government directly affects Todai's research outcomes. According to Thomson Reuters, Todai is the best research university in Japan. Its research excellence is especially distinctive in Physics, Biology & Biochemistry, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Materials Science, Chemistry, and Immunology.
In another ranking, Nikkei Shimbun on 16 February 2004 surveyed about the research standards in Engineering studies based on Thomson Reuters, :ja:科学研究費補助金|Grants in Aid for Scientific Research and questionnaires to heads of 93 leading Japanese Research Centers, and Todai was placed 4th in this ranking. :ja:週刊ダイヤモンド|Weekly Diamond also reported that Todai has the 3rd highest research standard in Japan in terms of research fundings per researchers in :ja:グローバルCOEプログラム|COE Program. In the same article, it's also ranked 21st in terms of the quality of education by :ja:特色ある大学教育支援プログラム|GP funds per student.
Todai also has been recognized for its research in the social sciences and humanities. In January 2011, Repec ranked Todai's Economics department as Japan's best economics research university. And it is the only Japanese university within world top 100. Todai has produced 9 presidents of the Japanese Economic Association, the largest number in the association. Asahi Shimbun summarized the amount of academic papers in Japanese major legal journals by university, and Todai was ranked top during 2005–2009.

Research institutes

The University's School of Science and the Earthquake Research Institute are both represented on the national Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.

Rankings and reputation

University of Tokyo is considered to be the most selective and prestigious university in Japan and is counted as one of the best universities in the world.
Nikkei BP has been publishing a ranking system "Brand rankings of Japanese universities" every year, composed by the various indications related to the power of brand, and Todai has been 2nd in 2009–2010 in Greater Tokyo Area. The university has been ranked 1st during 2006–2010 in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai. In another ranking, Japanese prep school :ja:河合塾|Kawaijuku ranked Todai as the best university in Japan.
Todai was ranked second in the world, behind Harvard University, in , which measured universities' numbers of alumni holding CEO positions in Fortune Global 500 companies.
Todai alumni are distinctively successful in Japanese industries. According to the :ja:エコノミスト |Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings, graduates from Todai have the 12th best employment rate in 400 major companies in Japan. However, this lower ranking position is because of the large number of alumni who become government bureaucrats, which is more than double of alumni from any other universities. In fact, alumni of Todai have the highest average salary in Japan, according to :ja:プレジデント社|PRESIDENT.

Gender imbalance

In 2019, enrollment figures from the University of Tokyo reveal that 5,267 of 24,674 domestic students are female. The ratio is more equal among international students, where 1,465 of 3,735 students are female. The gender imbalance is more stark among the faculty, where 7.8 percent of professors are female.
Within student life, some clubs excluded female students even though the university discourages such a practice. Of more than 30 tennis clubs at the University of Tokyo, even though no clubs announced that they reject female students, only two actively recruited women, allowing them to join without passing the exam required for male applicants. In 2020, the Orientation Committee announced that clubs that did not admit female students' membership could not join circle recruitment events.
Since 2017, the University of Tokyo has paid thirty thousand yen in housing allowances for female students exclusively in order to gain more female applicants from distant regions.

Campus

Hongo Campus

The main Hongo campus occupies the former estate of the Maeda family, Edo period feudal lords of Kaga Province. One of the university's best known landmarks, Akamon, is a relic of this era. The symbol of the university is the ginkgo leaf, from the trees found throughout the area. The Hongo campus also hosts the University of Tokyo's annual May Festival.

Sanshiro Pond

Sanshiro Pond, university's Hongo campus, dates to 1615. After the fall of the Osaka Castle, the shōgun gave this pond and its surrounding garden to Maeda Toshitsune. With further development of the garden by Maeda Tsunanori, it became known as one of the most beautiful gardens in Edo, with the traditional eight landscapes and eight borders, and known for originality in artificial pond, hills, and pavilions. It was at that time known as Ikutoku-en. The pond's contours are in the shape of the character kokoro or shin, and thus its official name is Ikutoku-en Shinjiike. It has been commonly called Sanshiro Pond after the title of Natsume Sōseki's novel Sanshiro.

Komaba Campus

One of the five campuses of the University of Tokyo, the Komaba Campus is home to the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, and a number of advanced research facilities and campus services. This is the campus where all the freshmen and sophomores of the University of Tokyo spend their college life. The University of Tokyo is the only university in Japan which has a system of two years of general education before students can choose and move on to special fields of study. The Komaba Campus is the cornerstone of general education, and was designated as the "center of excellence" for three new areas of research by the Ministry of Education and Science. There are currently over 7,000 students enrolled in the general education courses, about 450 students pursuing their specialties in the College of Arts and Sciences, and 1,400 graduate students in the advanced study.

Shirokanedai Campus

The relatively small Shirokanedai Campus hosts the Institute of Medical Science of the University of Tokyo, which is entirely dedicated to postgraduate studies. The campus is focused on genome research, including among its facilities the Human Genome Center, which have at its disposal the largest supercomputer in the field.

Notable alumni and faculty members

  1. Yasunari Kawabata, Literature, 1968
  2. Leo Esaki, Physics, 1973
  3. Eisaku Satō, Peace, 1974
  4. Kenzaburō Ōe, Literature, 1994
  5. Masatoshi Koshiba, Physics, 2002
  6. Yoichiro Nambu, Physics, 2008
  7. Ei-ichi Negishi, Chemistry, 2010
  8. Takaaki Kajita, Physics, 2015
  9. Satoshi Ōmura, Medicine, 2015
  10. Yoshinori Ohsumi, Medicine, 2016
  1. Kunihiko Kodaira, 1954
  2. Kiyosi Itô, 2006
  1. Toyo Ito
  2. Kenzo Tange
  3. Fumihiko Maki
  4. Arata Isozaki
Nobel laureates
Scientists