Hitotsubashi University (一橋大学, Hitotsubashi daigaku), also known as a Tokyo University of Commerce (東京商科大学, Tokyo shouka daigaku) is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda.
In 1920, it was officially renamed as the Tokyo University of Commerce as a Japan's first national college specialized in commercial studies. It underwent further name change in 1949 to adopt its modern name "Hitotsubashi". In 1962, the name "Tokyo University of Commerce" was legally modified to "Hitotsubashi University".[2]
The university has produced over 40 senior bureaucrats for the Japanese government, including Masayoshi Ōhira, who served as the Prime Minister of Japan. The university was ranked 4th in 2023 Nikkei Survey "University Image held by Human Resources" (人事が見る大学イメージ) of leading companies of Japan[3]
When founded by Arinori Mori in 1875, Hitotsubashi was called the Institute for Business Training (商法講習所, Shōhō Kōshujo), where it trained businessmen for the Meiji Era. The last Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, prior to the end of his reign, sent Eiichi Shibusawa to Europe during the 1860s, where he learned of their advanced banking and economic system and brought it back to modernize Japan. The school expanded gradually with the support of Eiichi Shibusawa and Takashi Masuda and other influential individuals. Shibusawa is regarded as the father of the modern Japanese economy. Eiichi Shibusawa and Tokugawa Yoshinobu's son, Tokugawa Iesato worked together to established a number of large business enterprises, as well as academic institutions and other social service agencies which still active today, while Masuda was the founder of Mitsui & Co Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the head of the Hitotsubashi family, and that may well be why in 1949, the school adopted the name of Hitotsubashi University.[4][5]
There were talks about a merger with The University of Tokyo, but alumni and students objected—the merger was not fulfilled. This is known as the "Shinyu Incident".[6]
1875: Arinori Mori established Institute for Business Training (商法講習所|Shōhō Kōshūjo) at Ginza-owarichō, Tokyo
1884: became a national school under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of Japan, and changed its name to the Tokyo Commercial School (東京商業学校|Tokyo Shōgyō Gakkō)
1885: came under the control of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan, and absorbed the Tokyo Foreign Language School. The school then relocated to the site of the latter institution in an education district called Hitotsubashi, Tokyo in the vicinity of the Imperial Palace
1887: the status of the Tokyo Commercial School was raised to that of the Higher Commercial School (高等商業学校|Kōtō Shōgyō Gakkō)
1897: established affiliated institutions for foreign-language education
1899: separated affiliated institutions for foreign-language education as Tokyo School of Foreign Languages (now Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
1902: changed its name to the Tokyo Higher Commercial School (東京高等商業学校|Tōkyō Kōtō Shōgyō Gakkō) due to the establishment of another such school in Kansai district (now Kobe University)
1920: raised to and became the Tokyo University of Commerce (東京商科大学|Tōkyō Shōka Daigaku) which is the first university of commerce in Japan
1927: moved to Kunitachi and Kodaira, Tokyo, its present location, on account of the Great Kanto earthquake
1944: changed its name to the Tokyo University of Industry (東京産業大学|Tōkyō Sangyō Daigaku) under the order of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan
1947: changed its name back to the Tokyo University of Commerce (東京商科大学|Tōkyō Shōka Daigaku)
1949: adopted the new system and the name of Hitotsubashi University (一橋大学|Hitotsubashi Daigaku) through a student ballot, when the American education system was introduced as part of the postwar education reforms, and established Faculties of Commerce, Economics, and Law & Social Sciences
1951: separated Faculty of Law & Social Sciences into Faculty of Law and Faculty of Social Science.
1962: changed Tokyo University of Commerce's legal name to Hitotsubashi University
1996: established the Graduate School of Language and Society
1998: established the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) which is now part of Hitotsubashi Business School (HUB)
2004: corporatized in 2004 as a National University Corporation. Established Law School due to the introduction of Law School system in Japan
2005: established School of International and Public Policy
2018: established Hitotsubashi University Business School (HUB) which includes ICS (SBA)
2019: selected as a "Designated National University"
2023: established School of Social Data Science & Graduate School of Social Data Science
As of 2007, Hitotsubashi University had academic exchange agreements with 84 overseas universities and research institutions, including those between departments and departments, as follows:[13]
Hitotsubashi University is considered one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, consistently ranking amongst the top universities in Japanese university rankings. It is one of the highest ranked national universities that is not one of the National Seven Universities.
Hitotsubashi is a specialized institution only in social science, thus it is not as well known as other big universities such as University of Tokyo and Kyoto University. Although it has only social science departments and the place in the university rankings is always underrated, the reputation is very high.
The university was ranked 7th out of 181 major universities in 2011 in the ranking called "Truly strong universities (本当に強い大学)" by Toyo Keizai.[26] In this ranking, Hitotsubashi is 1st in average graduate salary.
According to QS World University Rankings, Hitotsubashi was ranked 314th, 314th, 420th, 378th and 365th in the world during 2005–2009. It has been ranked 114th, 101st, 99th and 178th during 2007–2010 in its social science ranking.[27]
The Weekly Diamond reported that Hitotsubashi has the 4th highest research standard in Japan in research funding per researcher in COE Program.[28] In the same article, it is ranked seventh in quality of education by GP funds per student.
The economics department especially has a high research standard. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Hitotsubashi was ranked 4th in Japan in economic research during 2005–2009.[29] More recently, Repec in January 2011 ranked Hitotsubashi's Economic Department as Japan's 5th best economic research university.[30] Currently three researchers in Hitotsubashi are listed as top 10% economists in its world economist rankings.[31] Hitotsubashi has provided seven presidents of the Japanese Economic Association in its 42-year history; this number is the second largest.[32]
Asahi Shimbun summarized the number of academic papers in Japanese major legal journals by university, and Hitotsubashi was ranked 7th during 2005–2009.
Hitotsubashi Law School is considered one of top law schools in Japan, as it was ranked No. 1 in the passing rate of Japanese Bar Examination in 2006, 2008 and 2009.[33] On average, Hitotsubashi Law School was 1st out of all the 74 law schools in Japan according to the ratio, 81.5%, of the successful graduates who passed the bar examinations from 2007 to 2017.[34] In 2019, Hitotsubashi Law School became 2nd out of all the 72 law schools in Japan according to the ratio, 59.82%, of the successful graduates who passed the bar examination.[35][36]
Hitotsubashi Business School is ranked 2nd in Japan by Nikkei Shimbun.[37]Eduniversal ranked Japanese business schools and Hitotsubashi was ranked 3rd in Japan (100th in the world).[38] In this ranking, Hitotsubashi is one of three Japanese business schools categorized in "Universal business schools with major international influence". It is one of the few Japanese business schools teaching in English.
According to the Weekly Economist 2010 rankings and the President's article on October 16, 2006, graduates from Hitotsubashi have the best employment rate in 400 major companies; the average graduate salary is the second best in Japan.[39][40]Mines ParisTech : Professional Ranking World Universities ranks Hitotsubashi University as 25th in the world in 2011 in the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, although Hitotsubashi is small compared to other Japanese universities in the ranks.[41]
The university is ranked 8th in Japan for the number of alumni holding executive positions in the listed companies of Japan, and this number per student (probability of becoming an executive) is 2nd in Japan.[42][43]
2nd[48] out of all the 744[49] universities which existed as of 2006
Source
2006 Survey[48] by Weekly Diamond 〈ja〉 on the ranking of the universities which produced the high ratio of the graduates who hold the position of "president and chief executive officer of listed company" to all the graduates of each university
The university ranking according to the ratio of the number of the officers & managers produced by each university to the number of graduates
1st[50] out of all the 778[51] universities which existed as of 2010
Source
2010 Survey[50] by Weekly Economist 〈ja〉 on the ranking of universities according to the ratio of the number of the officers & managers produced by each university to the number of graduates
The university ranking according to the order of the evaluation by Personnel Departments of Leading Companies in Japan
^役員輩出率 大学ベスト30. Ranking100.web.fc2.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-23.
^Private universities apply different kind of exams. Thus it is only comparable between universities in the same category.
^E.g. Yoyogi seminar published Hensachi (the indication showing the entrance difficulties by prep schools) rankings "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-04-22. Retrieved 2016-07-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^In this ranking for example, Hitotsubashi Law course has the entrance difficulty of 90%, which is the top with University of Tokyo, and Economics course in Hitotsubashi as 2nd with 89%.
^Japanese journalist Kiyoshi Shimano ranks its entrance difficulty as SA (most selective/out of 11 scales) in Japan. 危ない大学・消える大学 2012年版 (in Japanese). YELL books. 2011. ASIN4753930181.
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