Hitotsubashi University

Hitotsubashi University (一橋大学, Hitotsubashi daigaku), formerly known as Tokyo University of Commerce (東京商科大学, Tokyo shōka daigaku), is a national research university in Tokyo, Japan. Often regarded as Japan’s foremost institution for the study of the social sciences, particularly commerce, economics, law, political science, sociology, social data science, and the humanities, the university has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda.

In 1920, Hitotsubashi was granted university status as Tokyo University of Commerce, becoming Japan’s first national college specialising in commercial studies. It underwent another name change in 1949, adopting its modern name, Hitotsubashi. In 1962, the legal name was formally changed to Hitotsubashi University.

The university has produced numerous senior bureaucrats and politicians for the Japanese government, including Masayoshi Ōhira, who served as the prime minister of Japan.

Founded by Arinori Mori in 1875, Hitotsubashi was initially called the Institute for Business Training (商法講習所, Shōhō Kōshujo). Eiichi Shibusawa was sent to Europe in the 1860s with a scholarship from the Tokugawa shogunate, which was then led by the 15th shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa. During his time in Europe, Shibusawa studied European banking and economic systems, which he later brought back to Japan. The school's growth was supported by Shibusawa, Takashi Masuda, and other prominent business figures. The renaming of the school to Hitotsubashi University in 1949 may be linked to its historical ties with the Hitotsubashi branch of the Tokugawa family, headed by Yoshinobu. There were plans to merge the institute into the University of Tokyo as part of the economics department in the 1900s, but alumni and students objected—the merger was not fulfilled. This is known as the "Shinyu Incident".

Hitotsubashi University has about 4,500 undergraduate and 2,100 postgraduate students with some 630 faculty members.

Parentheses show the numbers of admitted students per year.

As of 2007, Hitotsubashi University had academic exchange agreements with 84 overseas universities and research institutions, including those between departments and departments, as follows:

Hitotsubashi University is considered one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, consistently ranking amongst the top universities in Japanese university rankings. It is one of the highest ranked national universities that is not one of the National Seven Universities.