Greetings from the President

01.04.2024 Update

Ochanomizu University was founded in 1875 (8^th year of the Meiji era) as Tokyo Women’s Normal School, the first national institution of higher education for women in Japan. Throughout our nearly 150-year history, from a time when it was difficult for women to receive higher education and play an active role in society, Ochanomizu University has paved the way as a forerunner in women’s education. We have been advancing a better society by recognizing and respecting the differences of diverse people with various backgrounds, such as gender, age, race, nationality, culture, and region. Starting as a normal school for educating future teachers, our graduates have been active not only as educators but also as outstanding researchers and leaders in various fields such as economy, industry, and the media, around the globe.

In this academic year, the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Engineering was established as the first newly-opened undergraduate program in 74 years. This Faculty aims to promote the transdisciplinary collaboration of engineering and humanities/social science, by leveraging the educational and research tradition of the three existing faculties, Letters and Education, Science, and Human Life and Environmental Sciences, as its foundation. It strives to foster women leaders with engineering background who can demonstrate their core competencies in jointly creating the future of our environment, society and culture. Intermediated by the Faculty of Transdisciplinary Engineering, it is expected to facilitate the process of translating research and educational outcomes of the three existing Faculties into practical applications for society more quickly and smoothly. Together with the new Faculty, we will respond to social needs through creating solutions and keep on our path to open up a bright future.

The COVID-19 pandemic reminded us once again of the importance of IT and digital technologies. While our daily lives were restricted by COVID-19, IT supported our daily communication in virtual environment and enabled universities to continue to function as educational institutions. Since Japan has fallen behind much of the world in terms of digitalization, however, it is urgent to tackle this pressing task. It is also required to solve a variety of challenges for not only Japan but also the world through developing and utilizing IT and AI technologies to further extent. By teaching both knowledge of IT and the ability to apply it, our education enables students to acquire knowledge in mathematics, data science and AI, all of which are indispensable to realizing the concept of Society 5.0.

The world is facing urgent issues such as climate change and resulting large-scale natural disasters, depletion of natural resources, dramatic demographic changes that need to be solved on a global scale. In such an era with many challenges, Ochanomizu University stands strong with our mission to cultivate global women leaders capable of collaborating with people around the world to build a more peaceful world. Under this mission, we promote international exchanges, offering study abroad/training programs for our students, accepting international students, and exchange programs for researchers. We encourage our students t