Tokyo Metropolitan University

東京都立大学
Motto	To pursue the vision of an ideal human society in a metropolis
Type	Public
Established	1949 (reformed in 2005)
Academic staff	695 full-time
Students	8,538
Undergraduates	6,583
Postgraduates	1,955
Doctoral students	454
Location	Hachioji, Tokyo , Tokyo , Japan 35°37′00″N 139°22′38″E / 35.616667°N 139.377222°E / 35.616667; 139.377222
Campus	Urban
Colours	Black and blue gray
Website	www.tmu.ac.jp
Japan Tokyo Metropolis Show map of Tokyo Tokyo Metropolitan University (Japan) Show map of Japan
As of May 1, 2008[1]

Tokyo Metropolitan University (東京都立大学, Tōkyō Toritsu Daigaku), often referred to as TMU, is a public research university in Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan.

In contrast to other non-private universities in Tokyo, the university is established under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and not the national government.

Origin

The origin of Tokyo Metropolitan University was Prefectural Higher School, under the old system of education, established by Tokyo Prefecture in 1929 as the third public higher school. The School was modelled on Eton College, with three years of pre-university advanced course and four years of university regular course.

The seven-year system had an advantage to guarantee entrance to the Imperial universities at the age of Middle School. Before the end of the Second World War, many academic elite would start their post-primary education in Tokyo First Middle School, proceed to Tokyo First Higher School, and then enrol at the Tokyo Imperial University.

Since the jurisdiction control of Tokyo First Middle School and First Higher School were different, however, Tokyo First Middle School attempted to originally establish the prefectural higher school, whereas the other Middle Schools opposed to the said attempt. Prefectural Higher School was established in 1929 locating in the same site of Tokyo First Middle School, as a result of the opposition.

Information Centre

In 1932, Prefectural Higher School was relocated to 1–1–1 Yakumo, Meguro and became known one of the best higher schools with First Higher School. As the reign of Tokyo Metropolis was enacted in 1943, Prefectural Higher School was renamed to Metropolitan Higher School.

After the reform of the educational system in 1949, Tokyo Metropolitan University was established as a research university consisting of three faculties, namely Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Technology; three years of advanced course was reorganised to Senior High School affiliated to Tokyo Metropolitan University, whereas four years of regular course was restructured into the university proper. Five Prefectural Colleges, namely Tokyo Prefectural College of Technology, Tokyo Prefectural College of Science, Tokyo Prefectural College of Machine Industry, Tokyo Prefectural College of Chemical Industry and Tokyo Prefectural College of Women were also merged with the Tokyo Metropolitan University. In 1957, Faculty of Law and Economics was separated from Faculty of Humanities, and then further divided into separate Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics in 1966.

As expanding its organisation, the university was relocated to 1–1–1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji in 1991.

The university signed the student exchange agreement with University of Vienna in 1997.

Tokyo Metropolitan University was reformed in 2005 by integrating three metropolitan universities and one junior college: Tokyo Metropolitan University (東京都立大学, Tōkyō Toritsu Daigaku), Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology (東京都立科学技術大学), Tokyo Metropolitan University of Health Sciences (東京都立保健科学大学), and Tokyo Metropolitan Junior College (東京都立短期大学) with subsequent change in its Japanese name, although its English name for the university has not changed since 1949.

History

The following history includes the former institution of Tokyo Metropolitan University.

• 1949 – Tokyo Metropolitan University was established with three faculties, namely Humanities, Science and Technology
• 1953 – Master's courses of Anthropology, Social Science, Natural Science and Technology were set up
• 1955 – Doctoral courses of Anthropology, Social Science, Natural Science and Technology were set up
• 1957 – Faculty of Law and Economics was set up
• 1966 – Faculty of Law and Economics was reorganised as Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics
• 1977 – Centre of Metropolitan Study was set up
• 1994 – Centre of Metropolitan Study was reorganised as Institute of Metropolitan Study
• 1996 – Master's course of Metropolitan Science was set up
• 1998 – Doctoral course of Metropolitan Science was set up
• 1991 – The campus was transferred from Meguro to Minami-Osawa
• 2003 – Institute of Social Science launched to provide MBA course (Business school)
• 2005 – Institute of Social Science launched to provide LLM course (Law school)
• 2005 – Tokyo Metropolitan University was reformed with integrating three metropolitan universities and one junior college, which consists of 4 faculties, 7 divisions with 21 courses as well as 6 graduate schools (the organisation took over the former one) with 36 majors
• 2006 – Faculty of System Design opened the course of industrial art, and institutes were reorganised
• 2008 – Faculty of Urban Environment Sciences launched the course of nature- and culture- based tourism, and Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences launched the major of tourism science
• 2009 – Faculty of Urban Liberal Arts launched the course of economics
• 2010 – Graduate School of System Design launched the major of industrial art
• 2011 – Tokyo Metropolitan University (former) was closed
• 2014 – Bangkok Office was set up in Bangkok, Thailand^[2]
• 2016 – Business School will be transferred from Shinjuku Satellite Campus to Marunouchi Satellite Campus with launching the course of Master of Finance

University reform

In later 1990s, Government and local municipalities facilitated to reform the administrative scheme and financial management in line with economic bubble burst and financial difficulties due to Japan's progressive low birthrate and longevity. As a part of the said administrative and financial reform, social interest grew on restructuring national and public universities to independent administrative agencies with consolidating them. Tokyo Metropolitan University was also planned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to be consolidated with aforementioned three metropolitan universities and one junior college.

Name plate of the university before renaming

As a result of Tokyo gubernatorial election in April 2003, Shintaro Ishihara was re-elected as Governor of Tokyo, holding up a promise "I will establish a revolutionary university", and consequently the original restructure plan was significantly and rapidly changed, in terms of the organisation of faculties, course structure, etc. During this process, a number of faculty members left the university as a sign of protest against the reform.

Faculties (undergraduate)

Graduate schools

Campuses

• Minami-Osawa Campus (Main campus)
• Hino Campus (Faculty of System Design and Graduate School of System Design)
  

  Hino campus
• Arakawa Campus (Faculty of Health Sciences and Graduate School of Human Health Sciences)
  

  Arakawa campus
• Harumi Campus (Law School)
  

  Harumi campus
• Marunouchi Satellite Campus (Business School)

Facilities

• Computer Centre and Information Processing Facilities
• Science and Technology Research Facilities
• The Makino Herbarium
• International House
• Ogasawara Field Research Station
• External Facility in Fujimi-kogen Highlands (two-story log-house)
• Bangkok Office

Research centres

Lecturers of the university have been all highly regarded in their respective fields, and the standard of the research carried out by each of them has been considered as extremely high. In line with this, research groups that produce outstanding results and have the potential to become international research hubs, or those working in unique fields that are aligned with the university's mission, are designated as "research centres" and given support by the university.

• Research Centre for Space Science (Director: Prof. Takaya Ohashi)
• Research Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics (Director: Prof. Koichiro Tamura)
• Research Centre for Artificial Photosynthesis (Director: Prof. Haruo Inoue)
• Research Centre for Gold Chemistry (Director: Prof. Masatake Haruta)
• Research Centre for Language, Brain and Genetics (Director: Prof. Hiroko Hagiwara)
• Research Centre for Water System Engineering (Director: Prof. Akira Koizumi)
• Research Centre for Community Centric Systems (Director: Prof .Toru Yamaguchi)
• Research Centre for Child and Adolescent Poverty Overview (Director: Prof. Aya Abe)

International partner institutions

The university has concluded agreements with overseas educational institutions with the aim of promoting international cooperation in education and research as well as student exchange.

Notable alumni

• Masataka Banno (坂野 正高 Banno Masataka)^[3]
• Yukihiko Yaguchi, Japanese automotive engineer

Notable faculty

Academic reputation

Although its small size and young history in contrast to national universities and several leading private universities, the university has been one of the most reputable institutions in Japan. According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, it ranks 7th in 2014–2015 among 781 universities in Japan, behind renowned national universities, namely University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Osaka University, Tohoku University and Nagoya University. The university received the highest score of 100.0 for "citations.”

In 2012, Prof. Masatake Haruta was selected as a Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate as a possible winner of the Nobel Prize for his "independent foundational discoveries of catalysis by gold."^[6]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tokyo Metropolitan University.

• Official website

35°37′00″N 139°22′38″E / 35.61667°N 139.37722°E / 35.61667; 139.37722