Report: Japanese Medical School Deducted Points From Exam Scores Of Female Applicants

Merrit Kennedy:

The scandal has been reported in multiple Japanese news sources, including state broadcaster NHK. All cite unnamed sources from the university, and NPR has not independently verified the allegations.

Tokyo Medical University spokesman Fumio Azuma told Reuters that the university is conducting an internal investigation.

A university official told NHK that “it was concerned that a large increase in the number of women posed a serious problem for the future of the university hospital, because female doctors tend to quit after marrying or starting families.”

The points deduction was apparently aimed at keeping the number of female students at about 30 percent of the class or less, the media reports state. And it followed a regular pattern. The Asahi Shimbun, citing university officials, said, “A specific coefficient was used to automatically reduce the exam scores of all female applicants.”