University of Tokyo

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Introduction

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The University of Tokyo was established in 1877 as the first national university in Japan. As a leading research university, the University of Tokyo offers courses in essentially all academic disciplines at both undergraduate and graduate levels and conducts research across the full spectrum of academic activity. The university aims to provide its students with a rich and varied academic environment that ensures opportunities for both intellectual development and the acquisition of professional knowledge and skills.

The University of Tokyo has a faculty of over 4,000 and a total enrollment of about 29,000, evenly divided between undergraduate and graduate students. As of 2006 there were 2,269 international students, and over 2,700 foreign researchers come annually to the university for both short and extended visits. The University of Tokyo is known for the excellence of its faculty and students and ever since its foundation many of its graduates have gone on to become leaders in government, business, and the academic world.

Campuses

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The University of Tokyo is composed of three campuses: Hongo, Komaba, and Kashiwa. In addition, some University of Tokyo facilities are situated in other parts of both Tokyo and the country. The main campus of the university is located in Hongo Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo and occupies about 56 hectares of the former Kaga Yashiki, the Tokyo estate of a major feudal lord. Parts of the seventeenth century landscaping of the original estate have been preserved to provide greenery and open space. The campus is graced by the Kaga Estate's celebrated Akamon, or Red Gate, which dates from 1827 and has been designated as an 'Important Cultural Property' by the Japanese Government. Most of the faculties, graduate schools, and research institutes of the university are located on the Hongo Campus.

The Komaba Campus, located in the Komaba section of Meguro-ku, Tokyo, occupies an area of about 35 hectares. Facilities such as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Institute of Industrial Science stand on this campus.

The Kashiwa Campus, the newest of the three, is located in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, a suburb of Tokyo. Housed on this approximately 24-hectare campus are the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, the Institute for Solid State Physics, among other research facilities.
The University of Tokyo in the twenty-first century is being built up on the strong links among these three campuses.

Student life

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Students carry out two annual festivals: the Komaba Festival in November on the Komaba Campus, organized and run by first and second-year undergraduates, and the May Festival or 'Gogatsusai' on the Hongo Campus, organized by a committee drawn from all undergraduate students at the university. The latter is a three-day event and a chance for students, with the support of the university, to promote their academic and extracurricular activities to society. These festivals are both open to the public, and many visitors come to get a glimpse of activities at the university. In addition, The University of Tokyo has recently introduced a new 'open campus' annual event, which introduces university life to high school students hoping to enter this university from all over Japan.

As the preeminent academic institution in Japan, The University of Tokyo has a long history of nurturing and promoting academic excellence. One of the ways the university does this is through recognizing the achievements of outstanding students with the newly-introduced, twice-yearly President's Award. In spring each year, several students are selected from among those nominated by their professors for the award recognizing outstanding academic achievement, and in autumn, a second award is made to students for their extracurricular and cultural activities. From 2007, a single student is also chosen from all those awarded the President's Award that year for the President's Grand Award, recognizing particularly outstanding achievement in any field. 

Since 2000, The University of Tokyo has held the 'UT Forum' on a roughly annual basis in partnership with a leading university or universities overseas. The UT Forum is a chance for the university to present the latest research activities and results and for both faculty and graduate students taking part to deepen international relationships. In parallel with the researchers' forum, undergraduate and graduate students also organize and present a students' forum, where they have a chance to experience all aspects of the planning and implementation of an international conference and to develop valuable links with their peers and academics around the world.

Organization

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The university organization consists of the College of Arts and Sciences, nine faculties, 15 graduate schools and 11 institutes (for full details see the organization chart on pages 7 and 8 ). There are also 21 university-wide centers open to scholars of all departments and faculties of The University of Tokyo (see the organization chart on page 8 for a complete list); several of these centers are also open to scholars from all universities in Japan. The university-wide centers were created with the aim of facilitating interfaculty collaboration and interdisciplinary research, and often with specific research problems in mind.

There are also many research facilities connected to the various faculties of the University (see the organization chart on page 7 ). All the institutes and research facilities work closely with their related faculties and graduate schools, and many of the faculty members associated with these institutes engage in graduate school teaching and supervise graduate students working towards advanced degrees.

The university library system, centered on the General Library, is composed as a network linking the 55 libraries affiliated with the various faculties, institutes, and graduate schools. It holds about 8.1 million books and periodicals, including many rare publications. In response to recent technological innovations, the library system has been actively digitalizing scholarly information. The University Museum is actually a system of specialized museums covering a wide range of fields from paleontology to Andean anthropology, and its collection holds nearly half of the university's 6.4 million items related to research.

130th anniversary

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In 2007 University of Tokyo is celebrating 130 years of academic tradition with a forward-looking program marking the efforts of the university to transform itself into a leading global academic institution, standing at the forefront of the times, adapting to the new, internationalized and competitive environment and to the needs of higher education and research today.

The logo designed to mark events carried out in this anniversary year embodies the concept of the "living body of knowledge", and symbolizes the university's constant search for new knowledge, constant effort to educate and nurture new leaders and professionals, and the dynamism of knowledge. Among events to take place in 2007, The University of Tokyo will hold a series of symposia and exhibitions, sports events and student exchanges.

On this occasion the university aims to emphasize its mission to educate coming generations with the skills and knowledge to tackle the problems that humanity will face in the future, and to take the opportunity to discuss the role of The University of Tokyo with as wide an audience as possible.

International Cooperation

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The University of Tokyo places strong emphasis on cooperation and links at all levels of research and education Ð interfaculty, interdisciplinary, and with other universities both within Japan and abroad Ð and is working hard to establish strong local and global research and education networks. As of May 2007 students and academics from the university take part in 277 official exchange programs and research collaboration agreements with over 200 institutions in 47 countries, and each year many come to The University of Tokyo as part of these exchanges. In April 2005 the university opened its first university-wide overseas liaison office in Beijing, signaling the start of a new phase in efforts to deepen and strengthen ties with Asia and the world.

One of the fruits of this policy was the 2005 launch of the IR3S (Integrated Research System for Sustainability Science) with support from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Science and Technology. With IR3S, The University of Tokyo is spearheading an ambitious and innovative program to research issues relating to the global sustainability of human society, with a particular focus on Asia, and with AGS (Alliance for Global Sustainability) is searching for solutions to problems of global sustainability with other world-class universities.

The University of Tokyo is also a member of several international associations of top-class universities, including AEARU (Association of East Asian Research Universities), APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities), and IARU (International Alliance of Research Universities), through which the university promotes cooperation and exchange of researchers and students with partner institutions around the Asia Pacific region and the world.

Development

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The first meeting of the President's Council took place in November 2006. This new meeting was established with the aim of gathering opinions of external authorities on the internationalization and future development of The University of Tokyo. Comprised of 25 specialists from a range of fields and 15 countries, the President's Council brings together business and political leaders with journalists and academics, to discuss matters including the form of higher education in the modern world, the university's international image, relations with developing and developed countries, and the need for internationalization in higher education and university reform. The second bi-annual President's Council was held in London, and provided feedback on the progress of reform at The University of Tokyo and ideas for innovation and new initiatives to promote the university in the twenty-first century.

The University of Tokyo is facing up to and adapting to the research and educational demands of today's international society. At the same time the university continues to push towards the goals of creating a global research and educational network, providing lifelong learning and high-level professional education opportunities for all members of society, and maintaining and extending a reputation for excellence in all fields of specialist research.