
is a
private university
Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...
in
Okayama, Okayama
is the capital city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The city was founded on June 1, 1889. , the city has an estimated population of 720,841 and a population density of 910 persons per km2. The total area is .
The city is ...
,
Japan, established in 1964. It is predominantly a school of
science and engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
.
Notable events
From 2015–2018, Okayama University of Science's operator, the group Kake Gakuen, applied for permission to open a new school of
veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
in
Ehime Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,342,011 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...
, across the water from Okayama on the island of Shikoku. This school would be a branch of the Okayama University of Science. The government's aid in sweeping away regulatory concerns and speeding the process ignited accusations of corruption, as Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe
Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Lib ...
was friends with the owner of Kake Gakuen,
Kotaro Kake.
In 2020, another controversy broke out after it was revealed that all
ethnically Korean students applying to the university's recently added school of veterinary medicine in October 2019 were denied and failed with scores of zero (out of fifty) on their
entrance examination
An entrance examination is an examination that educational institutions conduct to select prospective students for admission. It may be held at any stage of education, from primary to tertiary, even though it is typically held at tertiary stage.
...
.
Notable people
Graduates:
*
Yu Suzuki
is a Japanese game designer, producer, programmer, and engineer, who headed Sega's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of the first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensio ...
, an engineer and
game programmer
A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall ...
who worked for
Sega and helped implement many of their famous video games
*
Koji Mise, a baseball player for Okayama's college team that went on to the
Nippon Professional Baseball
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formatio ...
league
Faculty:
*
Akira Suzuki, a chemist and Nobel Prize laureate who served as a visiting professor for a year in the chemistry department, from 1994–1995
*
Kent Gilbert
Kent Sidney Gilbert (born May 25, 1952, in Idaho, United States) is an American commentator and tarento working in Japan, lawyer of California. He first came to Japan in 1971 as a Mormon missionary. After returning to the United States, he received ...
, a ''
gaijin tarento'' minor celebrity and proponent of revisionist far-right Japanese historiography that downplays
Japanese war crimes
The Empire of Japan committed war crimes in many Asian-Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese and Pacific Wars. These incidents have been described as an "Asian Holocaust". Some ...
in World War II
See also
*
加計学園問題#関係者による発言, an article on the Kake Gakuen scandal
References
External links
Official website
Educational institutions established in 1964
Private universities and colleges in Japan
Okayama
Universities and colleges in Okayama Prefecture
1964 establishments in Japan
Kansai Collegiate American Football League
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