University of Tsukuba
筑波大学 | |
| The seal of the University of Tsukuba | |
| Motto | None |
|---|---|
| Type | Public (National) |
| Established | October, 1973 (Originally in 1872) |
| President | Yoichi Iwasaki |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Urban |
| Mascot | None |
| Website | www.tsukuba.ac.jp |
The University of Tsukuba (筑波大学, Tsukuba daigaku), located in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture in the Kantō region, is one of Japan's most prestigious national universities. (As with many other universities in Asian countries, traditionally in Japan, the top national universities are considered as the most difficult to enter there.) The University has 28 college clusters and schools with a total of around 15,000 students (in 2003).
The current university was established in October, 1973. A forerunner of this university is Tokyo University of Education (東京教育大学, Tōkyō kyōiku daigaku), which was originally founded in 1872, as one of the oldest universities in Japan, Tokyo Shihan Gakko.
The university is ranked as one of the top universities (9th to 17th) in whole Asia-Pacific region, where covers about two thirds of entire population in the world, in the “Academic Ranking of World Universities”* [1]
The University of Tsukuba has had several Nobel Prize winners so far, such as Leo Esaki, Hideki Shirakawa and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, which is extremely rare among universities in Asia, where the number of Nobel laureates is much less than those of European and American universities.
The University of Tsukuba is famous in the research of physical education, physics and economics.
On July 11, 1991 a Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi was stabbed to death at the University for translating Salman Rushdie's most famous novel The Satanic Verses.
In 2002 October, joined together with the University of Library and Information Science (ULIS, 図書館情報大学, Toshokan jōhō daigaku). The School of Library and Information Science and the Graduate School of Library and Information - Media Studies were established.
In more recent times the university established a part time MBA course taught entirely in English. As most public Universities in Japan only cater to a domestic audience, the teaching language is often restricted to Japanese. In that sense, the Tsukuba MBA-IB is different, and makes it convenient for foreign professionals, seeking to further their career. The program is located on the Tokyo Myogadani Campus.
Famous alumni
- Kiyoko Ono (70th Chair of National Public Safety Commission)
- Taizo Sugimura (dropout)
Business
- Yukihiro Matsumoto - free software programmer. Chief designer of the Ruby programming language.
- Kota Matsuda - CEO of Tully's Coffee Japan
- Daiyuu Nobori - CEO of Softether
Sports Player
- Sawao Kato - Gymnastic, 8 Olympic gold medalist
- Masami Ihara - Football player
- Masashi Nakayama - Football player
- Sota Hirayama (dropout) - Football player
- Toshiya Fujita - Football player
- Takanori Yoshioka - Athlete (Tokyo University of Education)
- Miwako Motoyoshi - Synchronized swimming, Olympic bronze medalist
- Toshinobu Kawai - Short track speed skating, Olympic bronze medalist
- Hirotaka Okada - Judo, Olympic bronze medalist
- Yoko Sakagami - Judo, Olympic bronze medalist
- Chiyo Tateno - Judo, Olympic bronze medalist
- Yoko Tanabe - Judo, Olympic silver medalist
- Noriko Narazaki (Sugawara) - Judo, Olympic silver and bronze medalist
- Fumiko Esaki - Judo, Olympic silver medalist
- Ayumi Tanimoto - Judo, Olympic gold medalist
- Midori Shintani - Judo, World judo championship gold medalist
- Masayoshi Okumura - Voice Percussion of a cappella band Rag Fair
- Riyoko Ikeda - Mangaka (Tokyo University of Education/dropout)
- Rin Inumaru - Mangaka
- Ryoko Nagata - Seiyu
- Miki Ito - Seiyu