Newly Merged University in Tokyo Aiming for Top Tier Globally, Say Top Officers in Interview

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:47 JST, September 21, 2025

The Institute of Science Tokyo’s Chief Executive Officer Naoto Otake and Chief Academic Officer Yujiro Tanaka gave an interview to The Yomiuri Shimbun and other outlets ahead of the first anniversary of the merger of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University. Otake expressed a desire to advance research that integrates science, engineering, medical and dental studies, adding, “We will strive to become the world-class university that society demands.”

“Collaboration between medicine and engineering, as well as industry and academia, has begun to take shape in many ways,” Tanaka said during the interview on Thursday.

In April this year, the new university launched a cross-disciplinary research framework known as the Visionary Initiatives. Research teams are organized around such goals as “achieving a society resilient in disasters and pandemics” and “each person achieving mentally rich and diverse life.” Experts from science, engineering, medical and dental fields collaborate within these teams.

The medical-engineering partnerships are already yielding results, including in improved augmented reality support for surgeries and systems for detecting rare cancers.

The Institute of Science Tokyo hopes to be recognized as a University for International Research Excellence, which would grant it access to financial support from the government’s ¥10 trillion University Endowment Fund. In the second round of applications this spring, eight schools applied, and six — including the Institute of Science Tokyo — were selected for on-site reviews by an expert committee.

Otake explained, “To realize a better future and society through research, we need to invite talented people from abroad and secure research funding.” Tanaka added, “A sense of unity is building in the university [toward achieving recognition].”

The merger is also reshaping student education. This spring, all incoming students participated in the Visionary Project, a program that places students from different faculties into small, mixed groups for collaborative learning. According to the university, students have said they want more chances to continue cross-disciplinary learning beyond their second year.

Looking to the university’s second year, Otake announced that the Visionary Initiative would be expanded to all researchers. “By challenging ourselves together to realize these visions, we can expect significant research breakthroughs,” he said.

Fund drove merger

Discussions on merging the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University date back to 2021. When the government’s vision of creating world-leading research universities through a ¥10 trillion endowment fund began to take concrete form, the talks accelerated. In October 2022, the two universities signed a basic agreement to merge and transition into a new institution.

In December 2023, the amended National University Corporation Law passed the Diet, officially establishing October 2024 as the launch date for the Institute of Science Tokyo.

The first round of applications for becoming a University for International Research Excellence closed in March 2023, with ten universities applying. The yet-to-be-formalized Institute of Science Tokyo filed a joint application as the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University but was not selected. Tohoku University became the first university to earn the designation.