For nearly 20 years, Tokyo Medical University secretly decided how many women could become doctors.
They did not leave it up to merit. They automatically deducted points from all female applicants in the first round of the entrance exam and then added up to 20 extra points to male applicants, without anyone knowing. That was how they ensured that in 2018 only 30 women were admitted out of 1.018 applicants, while 140 men secured a place among 1.596 applicants. The administrators’ excuse was that women, once they had graduated, ended up leaving the profession when they married or had children, and they feared that this would lead to a shortage of staff at their hospital.
The manipulation did not come to light through audits or complaints from those affected: it was discovered during an investigation into the irregular admission of the son of an official from the Ministry of Education in exchange for favors. Administrators such as Tetsuo Yukioka ended up making a public bow to apologize, and Japan launched a national review of all 81 medical universities in the country. Months later, the institution readmitted 67 women who should never have been rejected. Although no figure can give them back the years they lost.