Japan Opens Probe on Medical College Entrance Exams

August 10, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's education ministry on Friday launched an emergency probe of universities with medical departments across the country to check whether their entrance examinations are fair.

The move followed a scandal in which Tokyo Medical University manipulated entrance exam results to curb the share of successful female applicants.

"Possible similar cases are suspected at other colleges," education minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference.

The ministry gave 81 colleges until Aug. 24 to answer a questionnaire. It plans to release the result of the probe as early as next month.

Questions in the questionnaire include on the number of exam takers and successful applicants by gender and age over the last six years.

The questionnaire asks the colleges to give reasons if the rate of successful male applicants exceeds that of female ones and if there is a big difference in acceptance rates according to the ages of applicants.

Medical departments' entrance exams are of great significance because they "have an aspect of an exam for medical practitioners," Hayashi said. Jiji Press