Japanese medical school ‘rigged entrance test scores to keep out women’
University official says lowering all female applicants’ marks was ‘necessary evil’

A medical school in Japan is under fire for allegedly lowering all female applicants’ exam scores in order to reduce the number of women doctors.
The exam rigging is reported to have been going on since 2010, when the percentage of female candidates admitted to Tokyo Medical University (TMU) began to increase above the 30% ratio desired by university officials, according to The Japan Times.
University authorities apparently feared that having too many female doctors could lead to staffing shortages at affiliated hospitals, as women are seen as “more likely to take leave or quit to give birth or raise children”, says Asian Review.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
An unnamed TMU official told Japanese media that the practice had been a “necessary evil” and that it was done with “quiet consent”.
In this year’s entrance exam, only 30 women were accepted, compared with 141 men, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports.
The revelations have sparked widespread anger.
“Deliberately lowering the number of women who pass the exam runs counter to the times,” said Kyoko Tanebe, a board member at the Japan Joint Association of Medical Professional Women. “Women’s viewpoints are needed to achieve work reform for female doctors.”
Fellow board member Ruriko Tsushima said that such discrimination against “people who studied hard to get into the university” was unforgivable. “It shouldn’t happen in a democratic country that is supposed to provide equal educational opportunities,” she added.
Universities in Japan are allowed to set a gender ratio as long as they make such quotas public when taking in new students, according to the country’s education ministry.
The Tokyo medical school is already under investigation over claims that authorities “inflated the test scores of the son of an education ministry bureaucrat in order to admit him”, according to Quartz.
TMU has pledged greater transparency about its admissions practices.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Sodium batteries could make electric flight viable
Under the Radar Low-cost fuel cell has higher energy density and produces chemical by-product that could absorb CO2 from the atmosphere
-
Flying into danger
Feature America's air traffic control system is in crisis. Can it be fixed?
-
Pocket change: The demise of the penny
Feature The penny is being phased out as the Treasury plans to halt production by 2026
-
A manga predicting a natural disaster is affecting tourism to Japan
Under the Radar The 1999 book originally warned of a disaster that would befall Japan in 2011 — a prophecy that came true
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Japan is opening up to immigration – but is it welcoming immigrants?
Under the Radar Plummeting birth rates and ageing population leaves closed-off country 'no choice' but to admit foreign workers, but tensions are growing with newly arrived Muslims
-
Why Russia removed the Taliban's terrorist designation
The Explainer Russia had designated the Taliban as a terrorist group over 20 years ago
-
The Japanese rice crisis
Under The Radar Japan's staple food is in short supply and everything from bad harvests to rising tourist numbers is being blamed
-
Inside the Israel-Turkey geopolitical dance across Syria
THE EXPLAINER As Syria struggles in the wake of the Assad regime's collapse, its neighbors are carefully coordinating to avoid potential military confrontations
-
'Like a sound from hell': Serbia and sonic weapons
The Explainer Half a million people sign petition alleging Serbian police used an illegal 'sound cannon' to disrupt anti-government protests
-
The arrest of the Philippines' former president leaves the country's drug war in disarray
In the Spotlight Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the ICC earlier this month