Hitotsubashi University (一橋大学), formerly known as Tokyo University of Commerce (東京商科大学) is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It 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 over 40 senior bureaucrats for the Japanese government, including Masayoshi Ōhira, who served as the prime minister of Japan.

History

Founded by Arinori Mori in 1875, Hitotsubashi was initially called the Institute for Business Training (商法講習所). 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".

Organisation

Faculties and graduate schools

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

Undergraduate programs

Graduate programs

Parentheses show the numbers of admitted students per year.

Research institutes and centers

Academic exchange agreements overseas

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

Academic rankings and reputation

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.

General rankings

The THE World University Rankings ranked the university in the 1201st-1500th tier worldwide in 2024. The university is ranked 539th worldwide in the QS World University Rankings 2025, with particularly high evaluations in economics and business management.

Research performance

The economics department especially has a high research standard. According to the Asahi Shimbun, Hitotsubashi was ranked 4th in Japan in economic research during 2005–2009. More recently, Repec in January 2011 ranked Hitotsubashi's Economic Department as Japan's 5th best economic research university. Currently three researchers in Hitotsubashi are listed as top 10% economists in its world economist rankings. Hitotsubashi has provided seven presidents of the Japanese Economic Association in its 42-year history; this number is the second largest.

Graduate school rankings

In 2019, Hitotsubashi Law School became 2nd out of all the 72 law schools in Japan according to the ratio, 59.82%, of the successful graduates who passed the bar examination. Hitotsubashi Business School is ranked 2nd in Japan by Nikkei Shimbun. Eduniversal ranked Japanese business schools and Hitotsubashi was ranked 3rd in Japan (100th in the world). In this ranking, Hitotsubashi is one of three Japanese business schools categorized in "Universal business schools with major international influence". It is one of the few Japanese business schools teaching in English.

Alumni rankings

Mines ParisTech : Professional Ranking World Universities ranks Hitotsubashi University as 25th in the world in 2011 in the number of alumni listed among CEOs in the 500 largest worldwide companies, although Hitotsubashi is small compared to other Japanese universities in the ranks.

Popularity and selectivity

Hitotsubashi is one of the most selective universities in Japan. Its entrance difficulty is usually considered one of the most difficult, alongside University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Tokyo Institute of Technology among 180 national and public universities.

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

The university's alumni association is called Josuikai (如水会) and its main building (Josui Kaikan) is next to the building where Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) is in Kanda, Tokyo.

World leaders

Other politicians

Diplomats

Judges, bureaucrats

Industry

Academia

Others