Situated across five campuses in the country’s capital, the University of Tokyo is one of Japan’s premier tertiary institutions. It is frequently recognised as the top university in Asia and among the world’s top 25, with its roots in institutions established by the Tokugawa shogunate as far back as 1684.
The University of Tokyo includes Faculties of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Science, Agriculture, Economics, Education and Arts. It also operates Research Institutes of Oriental Culture, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Atmosphere and Ocean Research, and Cosmic Rays. Its main campus in Hongo is located on the former estate of the Maeda family, with its distinctive Akamon “Red Gate” dating to the Edo period. The Sanshiro Pond and its surrounding gardens, renowned as one of the most beautiful in Tokyo, also date to 1615 when they were given to the Maedas following the fall of Osaka Castle. The Komaba Campus lies to the south-west and is home to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, with the majority of students based here in their first and second years of general education before moving on to specialised fields of study. The Shirokanedai Campus is also nearby, home to the Institute of Medical Science which focuses on genome research, while there are smaller campuses at Nakano in the north and Kashiwa to the north-east of Tokyo. The university hosts more than 2,000 international students, with a growing number of undergraduate programs taught entirely in English and a network of partnerships with universities and research institutions around the world. The University’s significant number of Nobel Prize laureates include experts in the field of physics, mathematics and literature.
The University of Tokyo’s Hongo campus is connected to the city centre and surrounds along the Toei Oedo subway line. There are also frequent public bus services which travel across the city and connect to the other campuses.
The Meiji government established the university in 1877 by merging various medicine and Western learning schools, renaming it the Tokyo Imperial University in 1897. The earthquake triggered fires that destroyed around 700,000 books at the Imperial University’s Library in 1923, many of which were part of a treasured collection given by Japanese historian and former university professor Hoshino Hisashi.