Hitotsubashi University


Hitotsubashi University, formerly known as Tokyo University of Commerce, is a public research university in Tokyo, Japan. The university has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda.
In 1920, Hitotsubashi was granted university status as Tokyo University of Commerce, becoming Japan’s first national college specialising in commercial studies. It underwent another name change in 1949, adopting its modern name, Hitotsubashi. In 1962, the legal name was formally changed to Hitotsubashi University.
The university specialises in the study of the social sciences, particularly commerce, economics, law, political science, sociology, social data science, and the humanities. The university has produced numerous senior bureaucrats and politicians for the Japanese government, including Masayoshi Ōhira, who served as the prime minister of Japan.

History

Founded by Arinori Mori in 1875, Hitotsubashi was initially called the Institute for Business Training. Eiichi Shibusawa was sent to Europe in the 1860s with a scholarship from the Tokugawa shogunate, which was then led by the 15th shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa. During his time in Europe, Shibusawa studied European banking and economic systems, which he later brought back to Japan. The school's growth was supported by Shibusawa, Takashi Masuda, and other prominent business figures. The renaming of the school to Hitotsubashi University in 1949 may be linked to its historical ties with the Hitotsubashi branch of the Tokugawa family, headed by Yoshinobu. There were plans to merge the institute into the University of Tokyo as part of the economics department in the 1900s, but alumni and students objected—the merger was not fulfilled. This is known as the "Shinyu Incident".
  • 1875: Arinori Mori established Institute for Business Training 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
  • 1885: came under the control of the Ministry of Education, and absorbed the Tokyo Foreign Language School. The school then relocated to the site of the latter institution in 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
  • 1897: established affiliated institutions for foreign-language education
  • 1899: separated affiliated institutions for foreign-language education as Tokyo School of Foreign Languages
  • 1902: changed its name to the Tokyo Higher Commercial School due to the establishment of another such school in Kansai district
  • 1920: raised to and became the Tokyo University of Commerce which is the first university specialised in 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 under the order of the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan
  • 1947: changed its name back to the Tokyo University of Commerce
  • 1949: adopted the new system and the name of Hitotsubashi University 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 which is now part of Hitotsubashi Business School
  • 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 which includes ICS
  • 2019: selected as a "Designated National University"
  • 2023: established School of Social Data Science & Graduate School of Social Data Science

    Organisation

Faculties and graduate schools

Hitotsubashi University has about 4,500 undergraduate and 2,100 postgraduate students with some 630 faculty members.

Undergraduate programs

  • Commerce
  • Economics
  • Law
  • Social Sciences

    Graduate programs

  • Commerce
  • Economics
  • Law
  • Social Sciences
  • Language and Society
  • International Corporate Strategy
  • International and Public Policy
Parentheses show the numbers of admitted students per year.

Research institutes and centers

  • Institute of Economic Research
  • * Research Center for Information and Statistics of Social Science
  • * Center for Economic Institutions
  • * Center for Intergenerational Studies
  • Research and Development Center for Higher Education
  • Information and Communication Technology Center
  • Center for Student Exchange
  • International Joint Research Center
  • Institute of Innovation Research
  • Center for Historical Social Science Literature

    Academic exchange agreements overseas

As of 2007, Hitotsubashi University had academic exchange agreements with 84 overseas universities and research institutions, including those between departments and departments, as follows:

Academic rankings and reputation

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.

General rankings

The THE World University Rankings ranked the university in the 1201st-1500th tier worldwide in 2024. The university is ranked 539th worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2025, with particularly high evaluations in economics and business management.

Research performance

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. More recently, Repec in January 2011 ranked Hitotsubashi's Economic Department as Japan's 5th best economic research university. Currently three researchers in Hitotsubashi are listed as top 10% economists in its world economist rankings. Hitotsubashi has provided seven presidents of the Japanese Economic Association in its 42-year history; this number is the second largest.

Graduate school rankings

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.
Hitotsubashi Business School is ranked 2nd in Japan by Nikkei Shimbun.
Eduniversal ranked Japanese business schools and Hitotsubashi was ranked 3rd in Japan. 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.

Alumni rankings

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.

Popularity and selectivity

Hitotsubashi is one of the most selective universities in Japan. Its entrance difficulty is usually considered one of the most difficult, alongside University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Tokyo Institute of Technology among 180 national and public universities.

Notable faculty

  • Tsuru Shigeto: ex-president of Hitotsubashi University
  • Haruhiko Kuroda: former governor of the Bank of Japan and ex-professor of Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of Economics
  • J. Mark Ramseyer: ex-adjunct instructor, Mitsubishi professor of Japanese Legal Studies of Harvard Law School
  • Ikujiro Nonaka: professor emeritus, a member of Japan Academy, director of Seven & I Holdings Co., director of Mitsui & Co.
  • Kotaro Suzumura: professor emeritus, Person of Cultural Merit
  • Fumio Hayashi: professor, foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Takeshi Mizubayashi: professor of Graduate School of Law
  • Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit: ex-professor, Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Hirotaka Takeuchi: professor emeritus
  • Joseph Schumpeter: visiting professor in 1931
  • Hideo Kiyama, sinologist

    Notable alumni

The university's alumni association is called Josuikai and its main building is next to the building where Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy is in Kanda, Tokyo.

World leaders

  • The 68th and 69th prime minister of Japan Masayoshi Ōhira
  • The 4th prime minister of South Korea Baek Du-jin
  • The 20th prime minister of Mongolia Rinchinnyamyn Amarjargal

    Other politicians

  • Shōzō Murata: ex-minister of Japanese Government Railways, ex-minister of communications of Japan, president of Osaka Shosen Kaisha
  • Mitsujirō Ishii: ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, ex-deputy prime minister of Japan
  • Paek Nam-un: ex-chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly, ex-minister of education
  • Togmidyn Dorjkhand: current deputy prime minister of Mongolia
  • Aziz Abduhakimov:current deputy prime minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan
  • Michio Watanabe: ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Japan, ex-Ministry of Finance, ex-foreign minister of Japan
  • Shinzō Ōya: ex-Ministry of Commerce and Industry, ex-minister of finance
  • Zentaro Kosaka: ex-minister for foreign affairs
  • Kumakichi Nakajima: ex-Ministry of Commerce and Industry
  • Koji Omi: ex-minister of finance
  • Tetsuo Kondo: ex-minister of labour
  • Saburō Eda: ex-chairman of Japan Socialist Party
  • Shintarō Ishihara: author, ex-governor of Tokyo, ex-minister of transportation
  • Tsunei Kusunose: former governor of Hiroshima Prefecture
  • Hachiro Nitta: current governor of Toyama Prefecture
  • Yasuo Tanaka: author and former governor of Nagano Prefecture
  • Katsutoshi Kaneda: current minister of justice
  • Isato Kunisada: ex-parliamentary vice-minister of Cabinet Office
  • Naoki Minezaki: ex-senior vice minister of the Ministry of Finance
  • Yoshitake Kimata: ex-chairman of Committee on Economy, Trade and Industry
  • Yukinori Nemoto: current state minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries
  • Shigeyuki Tomita: ex-state secretary for foreign affairs of Japan, ex-senior vice minister of the Ministry of Justice
  • Hajime Seki: ex-mayor of Osaka City
  • Taizō Mikazuki: current governor of Shiga Prefecture, ex-senior vice-minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
  • Takashi Kawamura: current mayor of Nagoya City
  • Nozomu Suzuki: ex-mayor of Iwata City
  • Zenjiro Kaneko: ex-Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan
  • Koichiro Ichimura: ex-Parliamentary Secretary for Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan
  • Asahiko Mihara: ex-Parliamentary Vice‐Minister of Defense of Japan
  • Yoshinori Suematsu: ex-senior vice-minister of the Cabinet Office
  • Yosuke Mori: current member of the House of Representatives
  • Sumiko Takahara: ex-chief of the Economic Planning Agency
  • Leong Mun Wai: current secretary-general of the Progress Singapore Party