The University of Tsukuba, founded in October 1973, is one of Japan?s leading comprehensive universities. Three Nobel Prize laureates have served as either president or faculty. The University of Tsukuba is a relatively new university, yet in fact, it has a long and distinguished history in the Japanese university system. Its origin dates back more than 130 years to the Meiji era when Japan started its modernization. What is now the University of Tsukuba was founded in 1872 as the Normal School (which later became the Tokyo Higher Normal School), the first teachers? college in Japan. Its successor, the Tokyo University of Education, founded in 1947, moved to the Tsukuba area, which is about 60 km (36 miles) northeast of Tokyo, in 1973. The planners of the University of Tsukuba aspired to create a new kind of institution at a time when scholars in Japanese universities were still reluctant to break down disciplinary barriers. As such, since its inception, Tsukuba has been a forerunner in university reform in Japan. For example, our academic and research units were designed in such a way as to enable interdisciplinary research and education. Moreover, it was here that Japan?s first graduate-level evening courses for...
