TOKYO — Japan’s government urged a medical university to promptly disclose the results of an investigation into its admissions process after reports alleged it had altered the test scores of female applicants for years to deny them entry and ensure fewer women became doctors.
The manipulation started at Tokyo Medical University after the share of successful female applicants reached 38 percent of the total in 2010, the Yomiuri newspaper reported Thursday, citing unidentified sources. Subsequent reports said the alterations might have started even earlier.
Broadcaster NHK reported that the manipulation in some years had removed as much as 10 percent of women whose true scores merited acceptance, adding up to perhaps hundreds of denials for nearly a decade due to systematic discrimination.
On Friday night, dozens of people gathered outside the university holding banners and posters with messages such as “Protest against sexist entrance exams!” and “You trampled on the efforts and lives of women who trusted and chose you.”
Social networks were flooded with angry messages.
“We have seen shutters come down right in front of us just because we were women, and we should not let our younger generations go through the same horrible experience,” tweeted MinoriKitahara, a writer and feminist activist who was at the rally. (AP)