Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Japanese reports say that only 30 women were admitted to the medical school in 2018

Reports that one of Japan's most prestigious medical universities tampered with female applicants' entrance exam scores have sparked an outcry on social media.

Japanese paper Yomiuri Shimbun says Tokyo Medical University began altering results in 2011 to ensure under 30% of successful applicants would be women.

The private university says it will investigate the discrimination reports.

Users online took aim at the Japanese government over the scandal.

Critics suggested the allegations were ironic given Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stated commitment to boost female participation in the workforce.

Yomiuri Shimbun, which is the country's biggest daily newspaper, published the report examining student admission numbers on Thursday, sparking the complaints.

It quotes an unnamed source saying officials adopted a "silent understanding" to reduce the number of female entrants over concerns female graduates were not going on to practice medicine in employment.

"Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children," the source told the newspaper.

In 2010, before the measure was allegedly introduced, female student participation was about 40%.

Image copyright Google Street View Image caption The university is already under investigation over another allegation of exam tampering

The newspaper reports that after the two-round application process earlier this year, only 30 female applicants were accepted to study, versus 141 men.

The story has had national resonance because female participation in the workforce has become a key issue in Japan in recent years under Shinzo Abe's economic agenda.

Female participation has historically been low, especially in expert professions. Research suggests only 12.4% of legislators, senior officials and managers in Japan are female.

Many users shared their surprise and anger at the university on the popular Yahoo Japan website.

One comment, liked almost 30,000 times, said the allegations went "beyond a matter of outdated mindset".

Another suggested the institution's subsidies should be taken away.

Tokyo Medical University is already under investigation over allegations it bribed Futoshi Sano, a high-ranking figure in the education ministry, by demanding he help the institution access a financial grant in return for adding points to his son's entrance exam score.

Futoshi Sano, who was arrested last month, has reportedly denied the allegations.

Reports suggest the alleged gender discrimination may have been uncovered during that investigation.</s>A Tokyo medical school systematically altered the exam scores of female applicants for years to keep them out and boost the numbers of male doctors.

The exam score alterations were discovered in an internal investigation of a graft allegation that emerged this spring over entrance procedures for Tokyo Medical University, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

From 2011, the university began cutting the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women students at about 30 percent, after the number of successful women entrants jumped in 2010.

The action was prompted by a 'strong sense at the school' that many women quit medicine after graduating to get married and have children, university sources told the newspaper.

Tokyo Medical University spokesman Fumio Azuma said an internal investigation had already begun after allegations this spring of bribery involving the medical school admission of the son of a senior official of the education ministry.

'Of course, we will ask them to include this in their investigations,' he said, adding that the results of both investigations could come as early as this month.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made creating a society 'where women can shine' a priority.

But women still face an uphill battle in employment and hurdles returning to work after having children, despite Japan's falling birthrate.

Social media erupted in anger at the reports, with some posters demanding more steps to ensure equality while others said similar things were happening everywhere.

'It feels as if the earth's crumbling under my feet,' wrote one. 'Who are you kidding with 'Women should play an active role'?'

Another said, 'Women are told they have to give birth; if they don't, they're mocked as being 'unproductive', but then again, just the possibility that they might give birth is used to cut their scores. What's a woman supposed to do?'</s>A Tokyo medical school systematically cut women applicant's entrance exam scores for years to keep them out and boost the numbers of male doctors, Japanese media said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made creating a society "where women can shine" a priority, but women still face an uphill battle in employment and hurdles returning to work after having children, despite Japan's falling birthrate.

The exam score alterations were discovered in an internal investigation of a graft allegation that emerged this spring over entrance procedures for Tokyo Medical University, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.

From 2011, it said, the university began cutting the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women students at about 30 percent, after the number of successful women entrants jumped in 2010.

The paper quoted university sources as saying the action was prompted by a "strong sense at the school" that many women quit medicine after graduating to get married and have children.

Tokyo Medical University spokesman Fumio Azuma said an internal investigation had already begun after allegations this spring of bribery involving the medical school admission of the son of a senior official of the education ministry.

"Of course, we will ask them to include this in their investigations," he said, adding that the results of both investigations could come as early as this month.</s>A prestigious Japanese medical university allegedly doctored female applicants’ entrance exam scores for years because school officials believed that once women get married or have children they are less dependable workers than men.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan’s largest daily newspapers, published a groundbreaking report Thursday that accused Tokyo Medical University of deducting points from women’s entrance exams to ensure that women only account for 30 percent of students at the school. The report alleges that school officials believed women wouldn’t contribute to the university’s hospital staff.

“Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children,” the source said, according to Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun. “There was a silent understanding (to accept more male students) as one way to resolve the doctor shortage.”

The South China Morning Post also reported a source told Yomiuri Shimbun that “There is a consensus inside the university that male doctors support the university hospital.”

Although the number of doctors in Japan has increased slightly in recent years, a shortage of doctors has plagued the country for decades. The shortage of medical professionals in Japan stems from most doctors choosing to work in larger cities and in similar fields such as dermatology and ophthalmology to avoid working long hours.

Yomiuri Shimbun found that between 2009 and 2010 the incoming rate of female students to Tokyo Medical University doubled, with women making up 40 percent of the 2010 class. According to a translation by The Japan Times, Yomiuri Shimbun, citing unnamed sources, reported the school began doctoring exam scores for the 2011 class by deducting anywhere between 10 to 20 points from female applicants’ tests.

“Following the report this morning, we asked a law firm to launch an internal investigation into the reported issue,” a spokesman for the Tokyo Medical University Fumio Azuma said, according to South China Morning Post.

Executive board member of Japan Joint Association of Medical Professional Women Ruriko Tsushima condemned the university’s alleged gender discrimination in an interview with the Japan Times.

“I can’t forgive (what the institution is said to have) done to people who studied hard to get into the university, hoping to become doctors,” she said. “It shouldn’t happen in a democratic country that is supposed to provide equal educational opportunities.”

Tokyo Medical University is currently under investigation over accusations of corruption and bribery. According to Japan Times, school officials added points to high-level education ministry official Futoshi Sano’s son’s entrance exam scores in exchange for access to a school financial grant. Sano was arrested last month and is denying all allegations. The investigation into Sano intensified media scrutiny of the school’s practices.</s>TOKYO: A Tokyo medical school systematically cut women applicant’s entrance exam scores for years to keep them out and boost the numbers of male doctors, Japanese media said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made creating a society “where women can shine” a priority, but women still face an uphill battle in employment and hurdles returning to work after having children, despite Japan’s falling birthrate.

The exam score alterations were discovered in an internal investigation of a graft allegation that emerged this spring over entrance procedures for Tokyo Medical University, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.

From 2011, it said, the university began cutting the scores of female applicants to keep the number of women students at about 30 percent, after the number of successful women entrants jumped in 2010.</s>Japanese doctors check on a patient after the 2011 tsunami. Mark Baker/AP
• A prominent medical school in Japan has been accused of systematically reducing the scores of female applicants to its courses.
• According to The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Tokyo Medical University wanted no more than 30% female students per year.
• Sources said the school met this quota by automatically reducing the scores of all women applicants until 30% or fewer met the grade.
• Officials reportedly put the system in place because they felt women students would spend less time in medicine because they would eventually have children.

One of Japan's top medical schools systematically altered admissions test scores to make sure women couldn't attend in large numbers, according to a new report.

Tokyo Medical University reportedly reduced the scores of women applicants to keep their numbers below 30% of the student body, regardless of their ability, according to Japanese newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun .

Anonymous sources told the paper than officials at the school had been using an equation to keep female numbers low since 2011. It reportedly followed an unusually large number of women making the cut in 2010.

One source told the newspaper that the school invented the unofficial quota because they believed women would ultimately use their training less because they often leave to become full-time mothers.

The source said: "Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children."

They added that was a "silent understanding" that accepting more male students than female students was a way "to resolve the doctor shortage" in the country.

Applicants to the university take a written exam, followed by an interview and short essay stage.

In the February 2018 admissions round, 39% of the 2,614 applicants that took the written exam were women, The Yomiuri Shimbun reports. Just 18% of those who passed the final stage were women.

Of the 171 successful applicants, 30 were women and 141 were men.

Spokesman Fumio Azuma told news agency AFP that the university is launching an investigation into the reports, and will look to announce the results later in August.

Tokyo Medical University does not outline any sort of gender quota to prospective students.

An education ministry official in charge of the matter said that the practice was a problem because the university did not announce that it had any sort of gender quota in place.

The university is already under investigation after allegations that its former board chairman and former president improved the entrance exam score of a former high-ranking education ministry official in exchange for preferential treatment in a subsidy programme, The Yomiuri Shimbun reports.</s>A Japanese medical university has systematically discriminated against female applicants because women tend to quit as doctors after starting families, media reports have alleged.

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said Tokyo Medical University had manipulated the entrance exam results of women since about 2011 to keep the female student population low. Quoting unidentified sources, it said the manipulation started after the proportion of successful applicants who were women reached 38% in 2010.

Other Japanese media, including NHK and Kyodo News, also reported claims of exam manipulation. Quoting unnamed sources, NHK said female applicants’ scores were slashed by about 10% in some years.

The allegation surfaced during the university’s investigation of a separate scandal in which its former director was accused of granting admission to the son of a senior education bureaucrat in exchange for a favour.

The school’s public affairs department said officials were surprised by the Yomiuri Shimbun report and had no knowledge of the reported manipulation. It promised to look into the matter.

Yoshiko Maeda, the head of the Japan Medical Women’s Association, said it was astonishing that women were being stripped of their right to seek entry to the medical profession.

“Instead of worrying about women quitting jobs, they should do more to create an environment where women can keep working,” Maeda said in a statement on the association’s Facebook page. “And we need working-style reform, which is not just to prevent overwork deaths but to create a workplace where everyone can perform to the best of their ability regardless of gender.”

In Japan, many female graduates face discrimination in hiring and pay. Long working hours and lack of support in child-rearing from their husbands often force them to give up their careers. As Japan’s population ages and birth rates remain low, many workplaces including hospitals are chronically short-staffed.

This year a health, labour and welfare ministry panel urged medical institutions to allow more flexible working environments and support for female doctors so they could return to work after maternity leave and balance work and family.

Women account for more than 40% of the overall workforce, but the share of female doctors who have passed the national medical exam has been stuck at about 30% for more than 20 years. The slow progress in medicine has prompted speculation among some doctors about possible widespread interference in the school admissions process.

The education minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said: “Entrance exams that unfairly discriminate against women are absolutely not acceptable.” He said the ministry would decide on its response after receiving the results of an investigation from the school.

In Japan, medical graduates usually end up working at school-affiliated hospitals. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Tokyo school started to restrict the proportion of women in each class to about 30% by manipulating test scores thereby failing more women.

Admissions records released to the Associated Press by the school show the percentage of women who passed the entrance exam rose from 24% in 2009 to 38% in 2010. The figure has since stayed below that level, falling to 18% this year. The percentage of female applicants who were accepted this year was 2.9%, compared with 8.8% of male applicants.</s>TOKYO - A Tokyo medical school for years altered the admission test results of female applicants to keep the number of women in the student body low, a Japanese newspaper reported on Thursday (Aug 2).

The Yomiuri Shimbun daily said the manipulation came to light while prosecutors were investigating a separate scandal in which the Tokyo Medical University is accused of illicitly admitting the son of an Education Ministry bureaucrat.

"Following the report this morning, we asked a law firm to launch an internal investigation into the reported issue," Mr Fumio Azuma, a spokesman for the university told AFP, adding that it hopes to announce the result of the probe later this month.

The law firm that will investigate the report already has an advisory contract with the university, but its usual consulting lawyer will not be part of the investigating team, Mr Azuma said.

The Yomiuri, citing unnamed sources, said the university began lowering the admission test scores of female applicants to its medical school in 2011, after the 2010 results showed an increasing number of women were winning places.

In 2010, around 40 per cent of successful applicants were women, double the previous year.

After that, the university began trying to keep the percentage of women admitted each year to around 30 per cent of the incoming class.

"Women often quit after graduating and becoming a doctor, when they get married and have a child," one source told the Yomiuri, in justifying the blanket alterations of admission scores.

"There is a consensus inside the university that male doctors support the university hospital," which often requires emergency duties and long shifts, the source told the daily.

The newspaper said the test scores of female applicants had been lowered across the board by administrators, who applied a fixed coefficient to women's results.

In 2018, the ratio of women accepted after the first round of tests was 14.5 per cent, compared with 18.9 per cent for men.

In the second and final test stage, just 2.9 per cent of female applicants were admitted, compared with 8.8 per cent of male applicants.

The newspaper did not give figures for the current gender breakdown of the school's student body.

The university was reportedly already under investigation by the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office over claims the privately-run school wrongly admitted the son of an Education Ministry official.

Japanese women are highly educated in general, but the country's notoriously long work hours force many out of the workplace when they start families.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made "womenomics" - or boosting women's participation in the workplace and promoting women to senior positions - a priority, but the pace of progress has been slow.</s>A leading medical university in Japan wanted more male students—so it’s reportedly been lowering the entrance exam scores of female applicants for years.

The school, Tokyo Medical University, has been “systematically” reducing all female applicants’ scores by 10 to 20 percent since around 2010, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

“Many female students who graduate end up leaving the actual medical practice to give birth and raise children,” a source told the Asahi Shimbun, describing the motivation behind lowering women’s applicant scores. “There was a silent understanding,” the source said, that lowering the scores of female applicants, thus boosting the number of accepted male applicants, would be “one way to resolve the doctor shortage.”

A university official characterized the score alterations as a “necessary evil” and a “silent consent,” according to the Yomiuri Shimbun. The source also said that there was a widely held belief in the surgical department that “it takes three women to serve as one man.”

Following a major increase in successful female applicants—40 percent in 2010—the school began its systemic reduction of women’s exam scores, according to reports in Japanese media. Sources from the university reportedly said that this was done automatically by applying a certain coefficient to all of their scores. The goal was to make sure female students comprised only 30 percent of the class or less, according to NHK, NPR reported. This year, 30 women and 141 men were accepted by the private university.

Dozens of protesters held a demonstration outside of the university on Friday, according to the Associated Press. Signs included messages like “Protest against sexist entrance exams!” and “You trampled on the efforts and lives of women who trusted and chose you.”

There is already an internal investigation into the school underway after allegations of bribery connected to a male student and his father, an official within the education ministry, Reuters reported. University spokesman Fumio Azuma said that the school will “of course” include a probe of exam score reductions as part of the ongoing investigation.</s>Tokyo Medical University says it’s currently investigating allegations of alteration of entrance test scores to favour men and reduce admission of women into the school.

According to Japanese media, the school altered test scores because they believe that once women get married and become pregnant, they’ll be unable to carry out their shifts at the hospital.

According to Yomiuri newspaper, an unnamed staff of the university said that the practice was seen by the school as a “necessary evil” and had been conducted with “quiet consent” as they believed male doctors are more valuable than their female counterparts.

Another source told Nikkei newspaper that university officials were also worried that there could be shortage of doctors at the school’s affiliated hospital if more women are admitted.

Yomiuri newspaper reports that the university began lowering admission-test scores of women in 2011, after the number of successful female applicants doubled to around 40% in 2010.

According to Asahi newspaper, only 30 women were accepted in 2018’s entrance test, compared to 141 men.

An education ministry official, universities are allowed to set their own gender ratio but they must make that information public before hand.
Yomiuri Shimbun reports Tokyo Medical University altered entrance examination scores to decrease the number of women attending the school.