Tokyo school cuts women’s scores

The university began cutting the marks of female applicants to lessen their admissions

ATokyo medical school systematically tampered with women applicant’s entrance exam scores for years to keep them out and boost the numbers of male doctors, Japanese media said yesterday.

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 female students at about 30 per cent, 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 the results of both investigations could come this month.