Tokyo University – A Profile

Tokyo University was founded in 1877 after Tokyo Medical School was merged with Tokyo Kaisei School, which was originally founded by the Tokugawa shogunate for foreign studies. The national institution has about 14,000 students at two campuses in Hongo, Bunkyo Ward, and Komaba, Meguro Ward, and there are 10 departments–law, economics, literature, education, arts and sciences, engineering, science, agriculture, pharmacy and medicine.

As of the 2008 academic year, female students accounted for 19.4 percent of the student body. However, the ratios were lower among science-related departments–for example, only 8.9 percent of students in the engineering department were female.

Likewise, female teachers account for only 9 percent of the faculty–a fact that has driven the university to set a numerical target of increasing the ratio of its full-time female researchers to more than 25 percent by 2010.

(May. 28, 2009)

Source: Excerpted from “Today’s College Scene / Women at Todai still a minority” by Takayuki Yasui The Daily Yomiuri (May. 28, 2009)