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 to gain advanced knowledge through their regular coursework, identify a specific issue and find a way to solve the issue through dialogue.

Solving these challenges in today’s world requires comprehensive competency that encompasses an understanding of not only science and technology but also philosophy, history and other areas in humanities/social science. Our university’s strength lies in providing such comprehensive competency-based education and offering a wide variety of programs despite its small size. We are committed to accomplishing our tasks to extensively share the knowledge and experiences we have accumulated with the society by disseminating our educational and research achievements in Japan and abroad, as well as constantly pursuing advanced and creative research, and disseminating/sharing outcomes.

In recent years, Japan has made progress in the advancement of women under various initiatives. According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 released by the World Economic Forum, however, Japan is ranked 125^th of 146 countries in terms of Gender Gap Index, the lowest in G7 countries. In particular, Japan is behind in the dimensions of political empowerment, and economic participation & opportunity. The percentage of female researchers in Japan, especially in STEM-related fields, remains low compared to those in other countries. Culture and systemic factors in Japanese society remain obstacles that impede the empowerment of women who account for half of the country’s population in pursuing their career. In this context, I believe that fostering outstanding women at women’s universities has great social significance.

Upon becoming a national university corporation in 2004, we set a mission to “be a place where all women who are motivated to learn can realize their earnest dreams.” For many years, we have been committed to supporting women’s access to education and realization of their dreams all over the world including developing countries. This mission is directly connected to the central principle of the Sustainable Development Goals of “leaving no one behind” that the global community is working on. We aim to demonstrate to the world that we are a leader in the drive to create a society in which all of humanity can happily coexist, and to become an educational institution that confronts and strives to solve social issues through world-class education and research, and advanced university management from the perspective of environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

April 1, 2024
Sasaki Yasuko
President
Ochanomizu University

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Greetings from the President