Tokyo Medical University

About Tokyo Medical University

Tokyo Medical University is a focused health-sciences institution rather than a comprehensive university. Its principal academic units are the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing within the Faculty of Medicine, and the Graduate School of Medicine. This concentration is important for applicants: the university is designed chiefly for students pursuing clinical professions or medical research, not for those seeking a broad selection of unrelated majors. The institution traces its origin to 1916, when a medical training school was opened with the involvement of students who had left another medical school. It moved to the present Shinjuku site in 1918, became a medical college, and received approval as Tokyo Medical University in the postwar period. Its graduate school opened in 1957. Nursing developed separately before the present four-year university nursing program opened in 2013. Tokyo Medical University operates within a wider clinical network that includes its university hospital in Nishishinjuku and affiliated medical centers in Hachioji and Ibaraki. These facilities support clinical education, postgraduate training, and research, although students should verify where each course and placement is delivered. The Japan University Accreditation Association identifies it as a private university and granted accreditation from April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2032. That current accreditation and the university’s active admissions, fee, and program pages establish that it remains an operating degree-granting institution in 2026.

Admission is program-specific and follows Japanese university selection procedures. Applicants must distinguish the six-year School of Medicine route, the four-year School of Nursing route, and graduate admission to the Graduate School of Medicine. The university’s published fee information confirms that medicine uses both a regular entrance examination and a route involving Japan’s Common Test for University Admissions; nursing also has a regular entrance examination. This does not establish that every route is available to every applicant category. A complete official 2027 undergraduate admissions guide with application dates, required subjects, eligibility rules, and international-applicant procedures was not verified in the English-language material reviewed as of August 20, 2026. Applicants should therefore use the current Japanese admissions portal and the relevant school’s official application guide rather than relying on earlier cycles. They should confirm secondary-school credential recognition, required Japanese proficiency, examination location, document translations, and whether they qualify for domestic, international, recommendation-based, or degree-holder selection. Graduate applicants should separately verify the appropriate medical-science field, prior-degree requirements, supervisor arrangements, research proposal expectations, and examination language. No TOEFL or IELTS minimum was verified for the institution as a whole. Because the database identifies Japanese as the teaching language, applicants needing English-medium study should obtain written confirmation before applying.

Undergraduate applicants choose between two highly structured professional routes. Medicine is a six-year course, with official fees presented across all six years. Nursing is a four-year program at the Shinjuku Campus. The nursing program requires at least four years of enrollment, a minimum of 126 credits, and completion of the graduation examination. Its published annual intake is 80, with total capacity of 320. Nursing graduates who complete the appropriate subjects become eligible to sit Japan’s National Nursing Examination. The university also offers an elective public-health-nurse route; students who complete its required credits may become eligible for the National Public Health Nurse Examination and related qualifications. These are professional eligibility outcomes governed by Japanese requirements, not automatic licenses awarded solely by graduation. Graduate education is organized through the Graduate School of Medicine. Official university materials identify both a master’s program in medical science and a doctoral program, including routes designed for working professionals and clinical researchers. The organizational structure spans foundational medical sciences, social medicine, internal medicine, and surgical fields. Applicants should consult the current Japanese graduate-school materials for the exact research field, supervisor availability, eligibility rules, and degree requirements. Clinical learning is closely connected with the university’s hospitals and medical centers. This offers exposure to patient care and clinical research, but placement sites, schedules, and professional licensing requirements differ between medicine, nursing, graduate study, and postgraduate residency. The university database identifies Japanese as the language of instruction, and no general English-taught degree pathway was verified.

Key Highlights

• Private university specializing in medicine, nursing, and medical science
• Institutional accreditation runs from April 2025 through March 2032
• Origins date to a medical training school established in 1916
• Clinical network includes university-affiliated hospitals in Tokyo and Ibaraki

Student Life & Environment

Student life is shaped by an intensive health-professions curriculum and by the university’s urban clinical setting. The institutional organization includes a university library, a Student and Staff Health Support Center, an international-relations center, and dedicated educational administration offices for medicine and nursing. These services are more directly documented than recreational or residential provision. The main university facilities and the nursing program are associated with the Shinjuku Campus, while major clinical activity also takes place at Tokyo Medical University Hospital in Nishishinjuku and at affiliated centers outside central Tokyo. Students should therefore expect that classes, laboratory work, clinical observation, and placements may not all occur in one building or neighborhood. Commuting requirements should be checked for the relevant program and year. The available English materials do not provide a current, comprehensive account of undergraduate clubs, student housing, meal plans, or guaranteed accommodation. Applicants should not rely on older references to dormitories or on hospital employee housing pages, which concern different populations. Prospective students who need housing, accessibility support, health services, or international-student assistance should request current details directly from the relevant school before committing.

Location & Surroundings

Tokyo Medical University is based in Shinjuku, one of Tokyo’s major commercial, administrative, and transport districts. The Shinjuku Campus address published for the nursing program is 6-1-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku. Tokyo Medical University Hospital is in Nishishinjuku at 6-7-1 Nishishinjuku, a separate location on the western side of the district. The hospital is immediately accessible from Nishi-shinjuku Station on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line. It is also about seven minutes on foot from Tochomae Station and about ten minutes from the west side of Shinjuku Station, according to official access information. Shinjuku Station connects numerous rail and subway services, making the clinical campus reachable from a wide area of metropolitan Tokyo. Applicants should distinguish the academic campus from the hospital and confirm the reporting location for examinations, classes, laboratories, and clinical placements. Affiliated facilities in Hachioji and Ibaraki extend the university’s clinical network beyond central Tokyo, so some training can require longer travel than the main Shinjuku locations suggest.

Costs & Career Outcomes

The university’s current English fee page states that medical students entering in or after academic year 2024 pay ¥4,800,000 in admission, tuition, enrichment, and facilities charges upon entry and ¥4,920,000 in each later year, for a published six-year total of ¥29,400,000. Listed student-association, supporters’ club, and insurance charges add ¥96,800 upon entry and ¥69,000 in later years. For entrants from academic year 2025, selected high-scoring candidates in designated medical admission categories receive a first-year tuition exemption. For nursing, published academic charges are ¥1,900,000 in the first year and ¥1,600,000 in each of years two through four. Other listed charges total ¥35,500 upon entry and ¥27,500 in later years. The elective fourth-year public-health-nurse course adds ¥100,000. The nursing page also describes partial or full first-year tuition exemptions for the 20 highest scorers on the regular entrance examination. Graduate master’s fees are listed separately, underscoring that costs differ by program. These figures do not include a verified student living-cost budget, housing, commuting, books, equipment, or all placement-related expenses. Career preparation is tightly linked to regulated professions: medical graduates must satisfy Japan’s licensing and postgraduate-training requirements, while qualifying nursing graduates may sit the relevant national examinations. International students should investigate whether Japanese credentials and licenses will be recognized in any country where they plan to work.