In 1925 Drs. Yutaka and Susumu Nukada founded the Imperial Women’s Medical College in the Omori area of Tokyo (the present location of the Faculty of Medicine) and then established the Imperial Women’s Medical and Pharmaceutical College and the Imperial Women’s College of Science. They aimed to improve scientific education for women in medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, and science while also developing students with healthy and humanistic minds. This was the original vision of Toho University.
After World War II, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Faculty of Science moved to Funabashi City in Chiba Prefecture. With the reform of the Japanese educational system, Toho University became a coeducational institution in 1950, focusing on natural sciences, with Faculties of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Science. The university has continued to play an important role in scientific education here in Japan: all three faculties now offer the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees and have made noteworthy achievements in many areas of research.
The educational goal of Toho University is clearly outlined in Susumu Nukada’s Nature-Life-Man: it is to develop and produce competent professionals, with rich humanistic minds and a wide range of knowledge, able to “cherish nature and humanity.” Nukada’s vision was based on the three principles of “respect for nature, a profound awareness of the dignity of life, and humility.” To achieve these goals, the university has tried hard to provide each of the faculties with appropriate educational facilities and equipment, to hire excellent teaching staff, and to create an innovative system for education and research that meets the needs of our times.