English to be 2nd Official Language at Tokyo Science Univ.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, August 16, 2023

The Institute of Science Tokyo, which will be formed by the merger of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University in the 2024 academic year, plans to make English its second official language.

Kazuya Masu, president of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Yujiro Tanaka, president of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, revealed the plan in a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. The interview was conducted earlier this month, about one year after the two schools announced their planned merger.

At graduate schools and affiliated research institutes, not only will classwork and research be conducted in English, but the school officials who support such activities will be expected to be able to carry out their tasks in English as well.

As graduate schools play the central role in advanced research and industry-university cooperation, it is an urgent task for them to train expert officials who can help researchers and others find businesses that will fund their projects and apply for patents.

Aiming to become among the best in the world, the new school plans to proactively promote joint research with overseas institutions. Therefore, it is expected to be common for not only researchers but also school officials to be able to carry out their work in English. It also aims to help non-Japanese teachers and students undertake their school activities without problems and bring about better research results. The school also plans to put emphasis on sending its officials overseas.

“As we intend to invite skilled professionals and students from overseas, it’s impossible for us to be a school where Japanese is the only language used,” Masu said.

“Having expert officials with professional experience overseas will help the school become internationalized,” Tanaka said.