is a national

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

located in

Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the ...

, Japan. Tokyo Tech is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology, one of first five

Designated National University is a corporate body (legal entity) established under the provisions of the ''National University Corporation Act'' (2003) for the purpose of establishing a List of national universities in Japan, national university in Japan. History As part of ...

and selected as a Top Type university of Top Global University Project by the Japanese government. It is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. Tokyo Tech's main campus is located at Ōokayama on the boundary of

Meguro is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character, but is also home to light industry, corporate ...

and Ota, with its main entrance facing the

Ōokayama Station is a railway station in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. The station is right on the border between the wards of Meguro and Ōta. The station is facing the main campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Connected to the station is the Tokyu Hospital. Li ...

. Other campuses are located in Suzukakedai and

Tamachi is the informal name for the area surrounding Tamachi Station in Minato, Tokyo, generally referring to the districts of Shiba, Shibaura, and Mita. History During the Edo period Tamachi was a ''hatamoto'' residential quarter. Rice cultivation ...

. Tokyo Tech is organised into 6 schools, within which there are over 40 departments and research centres. Tokyo Tech enrolled 4,734 undergraduates and 1,464 graduate students for 2015–2016. It employs around 1,100 faculty members. Tokyo Institute of Technology produced a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

laureate in Chemistry

Hideki Shirakawa is a Japanese chemist, engineer, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tsukuba and Zhejiang University. He is best known for his discovery of conductive polymers. He was co-recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Alan Ma ...

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

History

Foundation and early years (1881–1922)

Tokyo Institute of Technology was founded by the

government of Japan The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary stat ...

as the Tokyo Vocational School on May 26, 1881, 14 years after the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

. To accomplish the quick catch-up to the West, the government expected this school to cultivate new modernized craftsmen and engineers. In 1890, it was renamed Tokyo Technical School. In 1901, it changed name to Tokyo Higher Technical School.

Great Kantō earthquake and World War II (1923–1945)

In early days, the school was located in Kuramae, the eastern area of the Greater Tokyo Area, where many craftsmens' workshops had been since the old Shōgun's era. The buildings in Kuramae campus were destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. In the following year, the Tokyo Higher Technical School moved from Kuramae to the present site in Ookayama, a south suburb of the Greater Tokyo Area. In 1929, the school became Tokyo University of Engineering, later renamed to Tokyo Institute of Technology around 1946, gaining a status of national university, which allowed the university to award degrees. The university had the Research Laboratory of Building Materials in 1934, and five years later, the Research Laboratory of Resources Utilisation and the Research Laboratory of Precision Machinery were constructed. The Research Laboratory of Ceramic Industry was made in 1943, and one year before World War Two ended, the Research Laboratory of Fuel Science and the Research Laboratory of Electronics were founded.

Post-War Era (1946–present)

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the new education system was promulgated in 1949 with the National School Establishment Law, and Tokyo Institute of Technology was reorganized. Many three-year courses were turned into four-year courses with the start of the School of Engineering this year. The university started graduate programmes in engineering in 1953. In the following year, the six research laboratories were integrated and reorganised into four new labs: the Research Laboratory of Building Materials, the Research Laboratory of Resources Utilization, the Precision and Intelligence Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Ceramic Industry, and the School of Engineering was renamed the School of Science and Engineering. Throughout the post-war reconstruction of the 1950s, the high economic growth era of the 1960s, and the aggressive economic era marching to the Bubble Economy of the 1980s, TIT kept providing Japan its leading engineers, researchers, and business persons. Since April 2004, it has been semi-privatized into the National University Incorporation of Tokyo Institute of Technology under a new law which applied to all national universities. Operating the world-class supercomputer Tsubame 2.0, and making a breakthrough in

high-temperature superconductivity High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previou ...

, Tokyo Tech is a major centre for supercomputing technology and condensed matter research in the world. In 2011, it celebrated the 130th anniversary of its founding. In 2014, it joined the edX consortium and formed the Online Education Development Office (OEDO) to create MOOCS, which are hosted on the edX website. In its 130 years, Tokyo Tech has provided scientific researchers, engineers and many social leaders, including

Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for ...

who is a former prime minister.

Campuses

Tokyo Tech has three campuses, Ōokayama campus in Ōokayama

as the main campus,

campus in

Shibaura is a district of Minato ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The district is located between the eastern side of the Yamanote Line train and Tokyo Bay. Shibaura consists mostly of artificial islands created by the excavation of industrial canals in t ...

and Suzukakedai campus, located in Nagatsuta, Midori-ku in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

. * Ōokayama campus * Tamachi campus * Suzukakedai campus

Organization

Schools and departments

TokyoTech comprises 6 schools, a number of departments and Institute for Liberal Arts. *

School of Science The Medway School of Science is one of the schools of the University of Greenwich in South East England. The School of Science is based on the university's Medway campus in Chatham Maritime in the county of Kent. The School of Science has acti ...

( ja) ** Department of Mathematics ** Department of Physics ** Department of Chemistry ** Department of Earth and Planetary Science * School of Engineering ( ja) ** Department of Mechanical Engineering ** Department of Systems and Control Engineering ** Department of Electrical and Electric Engineering ** Department of Information and Communication Engineering ** Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics * School of Life Science and Technology ( ja) ** Department of Life Science and Technology * School of Computing ( ja) ** Department of Mathematical and Computing Science ** Department of Computer Science * School of Environment and Society ( ja) ** Department of Architecture and Building Engineering ** Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering ** Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering ** Department of Social and Human Sciences ** Technology Innovation Management / Department of Innovation Science *Institute for Liberal Arts

Research laboratories

*Chemical Resources Laboratory *Precision and Intelligence Laboratory *Materials and Structures Laboratory *Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors *Quantum Nano Electronics Research Centre * Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI)

Centers

Politics and social sciences

* Centre for Research in Advanced Financial Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology) * Precision and Intelligence Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Solutions Research Laboratory *Integrated Research Institute * Global Edge Institute (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Productive Leader Incubation Platform *Academy for Global Leadership * Centre for Research and Development of Educational Technology (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Research Centre for Educational Facilities *Creative Research Laboratory *Research Centre for the Science of Institutional Management of Technology *Collaboration Centre for Design and Manufacturing (CODAMA) * Centre for Agent-Based Social Systems Sciences (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *

Foreign Language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at school ...

Research and Teaching Centre * Centre for the Study of World Civilisations *Asia-Africa Biology Research Centre *Centre for CompView Research and Education *Career Advancement Professional School *Organization for Life Design and Engineering *Centre for Liberal Arts

Engineering and computing

* Materials and Structure Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Frontier Research Centre * Imaging Science and Engineering Laboratory * Global Scientific Information and Computing Centre * Structural Engineering Research Centre *Super-Mechano Systems R&D Centre *Centre for Photonic Nano-Device Integrated Engineering * Photovoltaics Research Center *Inter-departmental organisation for Informatics

Chemistry and life sciences

*Chemical Resources Laboratory * Research Centre for Carbon Recycling and Energy * Centre for Biological Resources and Informatics * International Research Centre of Macromolecular Science *Bio-Frontier Research Centre *Emerging Nanomaterial Research Centre *Centre for Molecular Science and Technology *The Osmotic Power Research Centre

Physics and astronomy

* Volcanic Fluid Research Centre (Tokyo Institute of Technology) * Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors (Tokyo Institute of Technology) *Research Centre for Low Temperature Physics * Quantum Nanoelectronics Research Centre * Centre for Urban Earthquake Engineering *Research Centre for Nanometer-Scale Quantum Physics *Research Centre for the Evolving Earth and Planets * Centre for Research into Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems

Other facilities

* Asia-Oceania Top University League on Engineering * Tokyo Tech Archive Initiative * Health Service Centres *TITECH Earth Database Centre * Tokyo Tech Front * International Student Centre *Inter-departmental Organization for Environment and Energy *ICE Cube Centre

Academics

Libraries

The main library is the Tokyo Institute of Technology Library in Ookayama. It is the home of Japan's largest science and technology library. The library was founded in 1882, and it lost nearly 28,000 books during the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. Moved to Ookayama in 1936, it has been the national science and technology library of Japan. 1,200 students and staff visit the library each day.
It has 674,000 books and 2,500 journals, including 1,600 foreign academic journals; the number of international research collections is the largest in Japan. It provides around 7,000 registered electronic journals each year. The library is therefore recognised for the outstanding national and international importance and awarded 'Centre of foreign journals' by the

. Renewal construction of the library was completed in July 2011.

International graduate programmes

Tokyo Tech runs intensive programmes for obtaining master degree or PhD. Called the Tokyo Tech's International Graduate Program, the programmes are targeted at international students of high academic potential who are not Japanese speakers. Lectures and seminars are given in English mainly by Tokyo Tech's faculty members. Programme starting dates are October or April. Public fundings for these courses are also available; those students who have academic excellence may apply for scholarships from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

Academic rankings

Tokyo Tech is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.

General rankings

Tokyo Tech has been ranked 2nd among the Japanese universities according to The ''

Times Higher Education ''Times Higher Education'' (''THE''), formerly ''The Times Higher Education Supplement'' (''The Thes''), is a British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher education. Ownership TPG Capital acquired TSL Education ...

'' World University Rankings 2021. Tokyo Tech has also ranked 3rd among the best Japanese universities according to

QS World University Rankings ''QS World University Rankings'' is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). The QS system comprises three parts: the global overall ranking, the subject rankings (which name the world's top universities for the ...

2021 Tokyo Tech has also been ranked 2nd (national) in 2011 in the field of Engineering "Entrance score ranking of Japanese universities-Department of Engineering" by Score-navi. In another ranking, Japanese prep school Kawaijuku ranked Tokyo Tech as the 4th best (overall), 2-3rd best in former semester and 1st in latter semester (Department of Engineering) university in Japan (2012). According to

, Tokyo Tech was ranked 3rd in Japan and internationally ranked 20th in the field of Engineering and Technology, and 51st in Natural science in 2011. The university was ranked 31st worldwide according to Global

University ranking College and university rankings order the best institutions in higher education based on factors that vary depending on the ranking. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a single country, while others assess institutions worldwide. Ranking ...

and 57th in 2011 according to

, It was also ranked 31st worldwide according to the

Global University Ranking College and university Ranking, rankings order the best institutions in higher education based on factors that vary depending on the ranking. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a single country, while others assess institutions worldwide. ...

in 2009.

Research performance

Tokyo Tech is one of the top research institutions in natural sciences and technology in Japan. According to

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

, its research excellence (Pure science only for this information) is especially distinctive in Materials Science (5th in Japan, 24th in the world), Physics (5th in Japan, 31st in the world), and Chemistry (5th in Japan, 22nd in the world). (this ranking includes non-educational institutions) Weekly Diamond also reported that Tokyo Tech has the highest research standard in Japan in terms of research fundings per researchers in COE Program. In the same article, it's also ranked 8th in terms of the quality of education by GP funds per student. In addition, according to the September 2012 survey by

about the general standards in Engineering and Technology field, Tokyo Tech was placed 19th (world), 2nd (national). The Tsubame 2.0, which is a large-scale supercomputer in Tokyo Tech, was ranked 5th of the world best-performed computer. 1st in the world as university's owned one, this supercomputer is used for simulation related to the complex systems such as the dynamics of planets or financial systems. As Tokyo Tech has been emphasizing on 'practical' research, Tokyo Tech got the 2nd place at the number of patents accepted (284) during 2009 among Japanese Universities.

Alumni rankings

Alumni of Tokyo Tech enjoy their good success in Japanese industries. According to ( Truly Strong Universities -TSU), the alumni's of Tokyo Tech has been acquiring the highest (1st) employment rate within Japan. According to the Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings and the

PRESIDENT President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

's article on 2006/10/16, graduates from Tokyo Tech have the 2nd best employment rate in 400 major companies, and the average graduate salary is the 9th best in Japan. École des Mines de Paris ranks Tokyo Tech as 92nd in the world in 2011 in terms of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies. Also, according to the article of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

- Universities with the most employable students ranking 2012, Tokyo Tech ranked 14th place in the world (2nd in Asia, 1st in Japan).

Popularity and selectivity

Tokyo Tech is one of the most selective universities in Japan. Its entrance difficulty is usually considered one of the most difficult in Japan.

Evaluation from Business World

Wildlife

As of 2009, there is a large population of rose-ringed parakeets residing at the main campus of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Ookayama.

Gallery

Image:TITechAtNight1.jpg, Suzukakedai campus at night Image:TITechAtNight2.jpg, Suzukakedai campus at night Image:TITechAtNight3.jpg, Suzukakedai campus at night

Alumni and faculty

References

External links

The Tokyo Tech official web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokyo Institute Of Technology Educational institutions established in 1881 Japanese national universities Research institutes in Japan Technical universities and colleges in Japan Engineering universities and colleges in Japan Universities and colleges in Yokohama Buildings and structures in Meguro 1881 establishments in Japan