is a public
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 key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
in
Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or .
Established in 1907 as the third of the
Imperial Universities
The were founded by the Empire of Japan between 1886 and 1939, seven in Mainland Japan, one in Korea under Japanese rule and one in Taiwan under Japanese rule. These universities were funded by the imperial government until the end of World War I ...
, after the
University of Tokyo and
Kyoto University, it initially focused on science and medicine, later expanding to include humanities studies as well.
In 2016, Tohoku University had 10 faculties, 16 graduate schools and 6 research institutes, with a total enrollment of 17,885 students. The university's three core values are "Research First (研究第一主義)," "Open-Doors (門戸開放)," and "Practice-Oriented Research and Education (実学尊重)."
History
On 22 June 1907 (Mēji 40), Tohoku Imperial University (東北帝國大學, Tōhoku teikoku daigaku) was established by the
Meiji government
The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan.
Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...
as the third
Imperial University of Japan, after
Tokyo Imperial University (1877) and
Kyoto Imperial University (1897). From its inception, it advocated 'Open-door' policies, becoming the first university in Japan to accept both female students in 1913, and foreign students.
It was not until 1911 that teaching and research activities started in Sendai. When the university was founded in 1907 it only had one faculty (college), the College of Agriculture, in Sapporo, Hokkaido. This college, originally founded in 1875 as the , precedes the establishment of the university, and in 1918, it became independent to form another imperial university,
Hokkaido Imperial University, in its own right. The School of Science was established in Sendai in 1911, followed by the School of Medicine (formerly Sendai Medical College) in 1915, the Faculty of Engineering in 1919, and the Faculty of Law and Literature in 1922.
[
]
In 1947, during the
post-war educational reform, the university dropped the word 'imperial' along with other imperial universities, and assumed its current name, Tohoku University. It was also this year that the university's academic scope came to cover agriculture again, with the establishment of a new Faculty of Agriculture in Sendai. In 1949, the Faculty of Law and Literature was split to form independent faculties of Law, Literature, and Economics. A Faculty of Education was added in 1949, Dentistry in 1965, and Pharmacy in 1972. Tohoku has been a
National University Corporation since April 2004.
2011 Tōhoku earthquake
Subsequent to the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
, the university was declared closed until further notice, but with a tentative re-opening date of the end of the following April. The Aobayama, Katahira, Amamiya, and Kawauchi campuses are all at least from the ocean, towards the mountains, and therefore suffered no damage resulting from the tsunami. No deaths or serious injuries within the faculty and student body were reported on campus grounds. However, earthquake damage lead to the closure of 27 buildings and caused millions of dollars of damage to equipment. Classes have resumed normally since early May 2011 and plans for restoring, reinforcing or replacing damaged buildings are underway.
Campuses
Principal four campuses are in the
Sendai
is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan.
...
City, Japan;
*
:Administration Unit. and Principal institutes
*
:North-Kawauchi; The freshmen and sophomore of all undergraduates
:South-Kawauchi; Law, Education, Economics, Letters
*
:Medicine, Dentistry
*
:Science, Engineering, Pharmacy, Agriculture
Amamiya campus and some institutes transferred to the new extension at Aobayama campus in April 201
Research institutes
*
*
*
*
:''National Collaborative Research Institute''
*
*
*
Tohoku Medical Megabank Project, Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (東北メディカル・メガバンク機構, ''Tōhoku Medikaru Megabanku kikō'')
Centers and facilities
Academic rankings
Tohoku University has a high reputation, and this is recognised as shown in the rankings below.
General rankings
In the
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
The ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', often referred to as the THE Rankings, is the annual publication of university rankings by the ''Times Higher Education'' magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symon ...
2024, it is ranked 130th globally, making it the third-highest-ranking university in Japan, after the
University of Tokyo (29th) and
Kyoto University (55th).
The Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, which is entirely based on teaching and engagement unlike the world university rankings, placed Tohoku University 1st in Japan in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
In the
QS World University Rankings
The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...
2024, Tohoku University is ranked 113th globally and fifth in Japan, after UTokyo, KyotoU,
OsakaU, and
Tokyo Tech.
Subject rankings
Research performance
Tohoku University is one of the top research institutions in Japan. According to
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...
, Tohoku University is the ninth most innovative university in the Asia-Pacific area.Its research excellence is especially distinctive in Materials Science (1st in Japan, third in the world), Physics (2nd in Japan, tenth in the world), Pharmacology & Toxicology (3rd in Japan, 64th in the world) and Chemistry (6th in Japan, 20th in the world).
[ (this ranking includes non-educational institutions)]
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 ...
also reported that Tohoku University was ranked 3rd in Japan (201st - 250th in the world) for the World University Rankings 2022 by Subject:
social sciences
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
. The social sciences ranking includes the weightings such as Research: volume, income and reputation (accounts for 32.6 per cent) and Citations: research influence (accounts for 25 per cent).
In addition,
Nature Index ranked Tohoku University as 4th in Japan (90th in the world, 38th in Asia Pacific) on 2023 tables: Institutions. The 2022 tables are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. Before the 2022 edition, Nature Index also ranked Tohoku University as 5th in Japan (77th in the world, 28th in Asia Pacific) on 2021 tables: Institutions, that are based on Nature Index data from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.
According to the
Qs World university rankings
The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...
on 2012/9 surveyed about the general standards in Engineering&Technology field, Tohoku university was placed 56th (world), fifth (national).
As Tohoku University has been emphasizing 'practical' research, Tohoku received the top place for its number of patents accepted (324) during 2009 among Japanese Universities.
Graduate school rankings
Tohoku University Law School is one of the most famous Law schools in Japan, as it was ranked fifth in the passing rate of Japanese
Bar Examination
A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction.
Australia
Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associat ...
in 2020.
Alumni rankings
Mines ParisTech : Professional Ranking World Universities ranks Tohoku University as 13th in the world (5th in Japan) in 2011 in terms of the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies.
Popularity and selectivity
Tohoku University is regarded as a selective university, with its faculty of medicine being particularly noted for its selectivity. It is usually ranked amongst the most selective
STEM degrees in the country, alongside the medicine, engineering and science degrees at the
University of Tokyo and the faculties of medicine of
TMDU,
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
,
Osaka
is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...
,
Nagoya
is the largest city in the Chūbu region of Japan. It is the list of cities in Japan, fourth-most populous city in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020, and the principal city of the Chūkyō metropolitan area, which is the List of ...
, and
Keio.
Evaluation from business world
Presidents
Notable people associated with Tohoku University
Many world-class celebrities have attended or served at Tohoku University.
Sciences
File:Masataka_Ogawa.jpg, Masataka Ogawa (小川 正孝), chemist, former president, known for the discovery of rhenium
File:Koichi_Tanaka_2003.jpg, Koichi Tanaka (田中 耕一), chemist, 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
File:Akira_Endo_cropped_3_Akira_Endo_201111.jpg, Akira Endo (遠藤 章), biochemist, known for the discovery of first statin
Statins (or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) are a class of medications that lower cholesterol. They are prescribed typically to people who are at high risk of cardiovascular disease.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) carriers of cholesterol play ...
, 2008 Lasker Award and 2017 Gairdner Award winner
File:Atsuto_Suzuki_cropped_2_Atsuto_Suzuki_20211103.jpg, Atsuto Suzuki (鈴木 厚人), physicist, 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics winner
File:Hideo_Ohno.jpg, Hideo Ohno (大野 英男), physicist, the 22nd president of Tohoku University
*
Hitoshi Oshitani (押谷仁), scientist, virologist and public health expert
*
Tetsuo Nozoe (野副 鉄男), chemist, known for
hinokitiol
*
Tsutomu Ōhashi (大橋 力), artist and scientist, Doctor of Agriculture
*
Syun-Ichi Akasofu (赤祖父 俊一), geophysicist, the founding director of the
International Arctic Research Center of UAF
*
Hiroshi Maeda (前田 浩), pharmacologist and chemist, known for discovery of
EPR effect
*
Chen Wei-jao (陳維昭), a surgeon and president of
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...
*
Lo Tung-bin (羅銅壁), biochemist, pioneer in the research on proteins in Taiwan
*
Susumu Satomi (里見 進), a surgeon and president of Tohoku University
*
Ryuta Kawashima (川島 隆太), neuroscientist, currently resident professor, the supervisor of
Nintendo DS
The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...
gamesofts; ''
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!'' and ''
Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old is Your Brain?''
*
Noriko Osumi (大隅 典子), neuroscientist, the vice president of Tohoku University (2018–)
*
Mahmoud Nili Ahmadabadi, president of
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (UT) or Tehran University (, ) is a public collegiate university in Iran, and the oldest and most prominent Iranian university located in Tehran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as ...
Engineering
File:Kotaro_Honda.jpg, Kotaro Honda (本多 光太郎), inventor, former president, 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
nominee
File:Hidetsugu_Yagi.jpg, Hidetsugu Yagi (八木 秀次), engineer, mentor of Yagi–Uda antenna
File:Shunichi_Iwasaki_201311.jpg, Shun-ichi Iwasaki (岩崎 俊一), engineer, pioneer of perpendicular recording and modern hard disk drives
File:Junichi_Nishizawa.jpg, Jun-ichi Nishizawa (西澤 潤一), engineer, known for inventing optical communication
Optical communication, also known as optical telecommunication, is communication at a distance using light to carry information. It can be performed visually or by using electronic devices. The earliest basic forms of optical communication date ...
systems including optical fiber
An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...
, laser diode and so forth, PIN diode and SIT/SITh
File:舛岡富士雄.jpg, Fujio Masuoka (舛岡 富士雄), engineer, the developer of flash memory
Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...
File:名城2010Fとともに.jpg, Sumio Iijima (飯島 澄男), physicist, inventor of carbon nanotubes
A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range (nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized:
* ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''SWC ...
File:Masatoshi_Shima.jpg, Masatoshi Shima (嶋 正利), inventor of CPU Intel 4004
File:Masato Sagawa March 3, 2014-.png, alt=Masato Sagawa (佐川眞人), inventor of sintered NdFeB magnets, the winner of 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering., Masato Sagawa (佐川眞人), inventor of sintered NdFeB magnets, the winner of 2022 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
*
Shintaro Uda (宇田 新太郎), an inventor of the Yagi-Uda antenna 1926, the ubiquitous television antenna
*
Masayoshi Esashi (江刺 正喜), engineer, the global authority of
Microelectromechanical systems
*
Toshitada Doi (土井 利忠), a pioneer in digital audio, originated
Aibo
AIBO (stylized as aibo, abbreviated as Artificial Intelligence RoBOt, homonymous with , "pal" or "partner" in Japanese) is a series of robotic dogs designed and manufactured by Sony. Sony announced a prototype Aibo in mid-1998, and the first co ...
the pet
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
*
Fumihiko Imamura (今村 文彦),
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
, the natural disaster expert for
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
after
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...
[CNN rebroadcasting NHK, 13 March 2011.]
*
Masataka Nakazawa (中沢 正隆), pioneer of optical solitons in high-speed optical communication in fiber optic networks and rare earth-doped optical amplifiers (such as EDFA)
Literature and arts
File:LuXun1930.jpg, Lu Xun (魯迅), the greatest writer in modern China
File:Tanabe_Hajime.jpg, Hajime Tanabe (田辺 元), philosopher of science, member of Kyoto School
File:井土霊山_Ido_Reizan.jpg, Reizan Ido (井土 霊山), a journalist, writer, poet, and involved in Freedom and People's Rights Movement
File:Kita_Morio.jpg, Morio Kita (北 杜夫), novelist, 1960 Akutagawa Prize winner
File:Terumi_Tanaka_at_the_Nobel_Peace_Prize_Ceremony_Oslo_2024-61445_(cropped).jpg, Terumi Tanaka (田中 煕巳), former professor, Representative of Nihon Hidankyo, 2024 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway
*
Ben Goto (五島 勉), a Japanese writer
* (浜田 隼雄), a Taiwanese author
* (大池 唯雄), novelist, 1938
Naoki Prize winner
* (津本 陽), novelist, 1978
Naoki Prize winner
* (中村 彰彦), novelist, 1994
Naoki Prize winner
* (佐藤 賢一), novelist, 1999
Naoki Prize winner
*
Toh EnJoe (円城 塔), author, 2012
Akutagawa Prize,
Nihon SF Taisho Award, and 2013
Seiun Award
The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Nihon SF Taikai, Japan Science Fic ...
winner
*
Yuichi Kodama (児玉 裕一), a Japanese video director
*
Kazumasa Oda (小田 和正), one of the most famous musicians in pop music in Japan since the 1970s
*
Kōtarō Isaka (伊坂 幸太郎), a
mystery fiction
Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...
writer,
Japan Booksellers Award and
Yamamoto Shūgorō Prize winner
*
Hideaki Sena (瀬名 秀明), a
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
writer and
Nihon SF Taisho Award winner
*
Chūsei Sone (曽根 中生), a Japanese film director and screenwriter
*
Kenji Suzuki (鈴木 健二), an announcer of the
NHK
, also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee.
NHK ope ...
*
Chinggeltei (1924–2013), a Mongolist, the former vice-rector of
Inner Mongolia University
Mathematics, economics and business
File:Hirofumi_Uzawa.jpg, Hirofumi Uzawa (宇沢 弘文), an economist, the father of Theoretical Economics in Japan
File:Shizuo_Kakutani.jpg, Shizuo Kakutani
was a Japanese and American mathematician, best known for his eponymous fixed-point theorem.
Biography
Kakutani attended Tohoku University in Sendai, where his advisor was Tatsujirō Shimizu. At one point he spent two years at the Institu ...
(角谷 静夫), mathematician, professor at Yale, known for Kakutani fixed-point theorem
File:SonyFair2008_Opening_Ryoji_Chubachi.jpg, Ryōji Chūbachi (中鉢良治), a Japanese businessman, former vice chairman and president of Sony Corporation
*
Nobuhiko Kawamoto (川本 信彦),
CEO of
Honda Motor until 1995
*
Su Buqing (蘇歩青), a Chinese mathematician and former president of
Fudan University
*
Chen Jiangong (陈建功), pioneer of modern Chinese mathematics
*
Yasumasa Kanada (金田 康正), a mathematician most known for his numerous world records over the past two decades for calculating digits of
π
*
Shigeo Sasaki (佐々木 重夫), a professor emeritus and mathematician who introduced the
Sasaki manifold
Politics
File:Matsumae_Shigeyoshi.JPG, Shigeyoshi Matsumae (松前 重義), a Japanese politician, electrical engineer, and founder of Tokai University
File:Yukio Edano in SL Square on 2017 - 4 (cropped).jpg, Yukio Edano (枝野 幸男), a Japanese politician and a member of the House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
in the Diet
File:Eisuke_Mori.jpg, Eisuke Mori (森 英介), a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party
File:Masako Mori 20170510.jpg, Masako Mori (森 まさこ), a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party
*
Masayuki Aoyama (青山 雅幸), Japanese politician in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
*
Mitsuru Sakurai (桜井 充), Japanese politician of the
Democratic Party of Japan
The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist:
*
*
*
*
*
*
* to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...
*
Kenya Akiba (秋葉 賢也), a Japanese politician of the
Liberal Democratic Party
*
Akira Koike (小池 晃), a Japanese politician of
Japanese Communist Party
*
Nori Sasaki (佐々木 紀), Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan
*
Yoshihisa Inoue (井上 義久), Japanese politician of the
New Komeito Party
*
Emiko Okuyama (奥山 恵美子), Mayor of
Sendai
is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan.
...
, 2009–2017
See also
*
Tohoku Mathematical Journal
*
Institute for Materials Research
*
Sendai
is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture and the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,098,335 in 539,698 households, making it the List of cities in Japan, twelfth most populated city in Japan.
...
*
List of National Treasures of Japan (writings)
*
Tegula kusairo
References
External links
Tohoku UniversityAnnual review 2006
{{Authority control
Japanese national universities
National Seven Universities
Universities and colleges in Sendai
Universities and colleges established in 1907
1907 establishments in Japan