ABOUT US

Hitotsubashi University began its life as the Commercial Training School (Shōhō-Kōshūjo) in 1875 and was established by Arinori Mori in the central business district of Tokyo. Since that time, the University has adapted with the times and has evolved through a number of incarnations. In 1887, two years after the University had relocated to a new campus in Kanda-Hitotsubashi, it was renamed the Higher Commercial School. In 1920, it began a new incarnation as the Tokyo University of Commerce. Finally, after parts of the campus were destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake, the campus was moved to Kunitachi (its current location) and, in 1949, took the name Hitotsubashi University.

Throughout this long history, the Faculty of Commerce and Management has played a central role in the University. The school can trace its origins back to the very first incarnation of the University (The Commercial Training School), and, as a result, is proud to be one of the oldest and most distinguished business schools in the world.

Fostering the Next Generation of Captains of Industry

“Captains of Industry" are leaders in the business world. Since its founding as an educational institution, Hitotsubashi University has produced many such outstanding business leaders. This role continues to be Hitotsubashi University’s primary mission.

That mission is defined in our mission statement, which inspires us to forge an environment of academic excellence. The pursuit and realization of this aspiration is embraced by all members of the Graduate School of Business Administration, including our faculty, our staff, and our students.

Diploma Policy (Degree Awarding Policy)

Hitotsubashi University, which was established in 1875 as the Shoho-Koshujo, has since the time of its predecessors—the Tokyo Higher Commercial School and the Tokyo University of Commerce—nurtured highly specialized professionals with a strong sense of mission, objective analytical skills, and deep-thinking abilities to support the economic and social development of Japan and the world.

Any differences between commerce and management and economics would likely be characterized differently by different universities. It is often noted that the content dealt with in commerce and management is more practical than that dealt with in economics. Although this may be true, we cannot explain away the differences between the two disciplines simply by saying that economics is the theoretical foundation and that commerce or business administration is the practice, nor can we simply say that economics is abstract while commerce or business administration is concrete. From the perspective of the Hitotsubashi University Faculty of Commerce and Management, the differences lie in the focus and the approach to analyzing issues:

1. Commerce and management focuses to a much greater extent on the topics pertaining to business administration than economics faculties.

2. Commerce and management, as an applied social science, draws on neighboring disciplines?economics, sociology, history, psychology, law, and so on?to enhance our understanding of business administration challenges. This cross-disciplinary approach allows a broader view of key issues than can be achieved through the lens of a single discipline; for example, law provides insight into accounting, sociology has close ties with business administration, and economic thinking and theories are clearly reflected in financial theory.

3. Finally, though cross-disciplinary, commerce and management has nevertheless developed unique perspectives not found in neighboring disciplines. For example, management organization theory seeks to understand business organization issues and phenomena through aspects of sociology, psychology, economics, and other lines of thinking. Yet, sociological or other thinking is not directly applied to the topics under consideration, but rather management organization theory has evolved its own theoretical constructs, and it is these unique constructs that are applied both in research and practice.

This practical utility and theoretical validity not only serves the business world, but also promotes a deeper understanding of the essence of the issues in business administration from a unique academic perspective. In other words, the practical skills one acquires in the Faculty of Commerce and Management have a solid theoretical basis.

“We foster captains of industry who create value for business and serve communities in Asia.”

This is the mission that guides the Faculty of Commerce and Management in its endeavors toward Leadership, Innovation, and Integrity (see here for more details). The curriculum of the Faculty of Commerce and Management realizes this mission through its lecture courses that impart a broad range of academic knowledge and its seminar courses that allow the application of that knowledge and guide deep analysis of the issues that capture the imagination of each individual student.

In lecture courses, students are exposed to leading-edge academic insights as they are systematically guided through various fields, such as business administration, marketing, accounting, and finance, from introductory to advanced levels. A crucial feature of the Faculty of Commerce and Management that separates us from many other business faculties is our long-standing four-year seminar program, which includes an introductory seminar in the first year to cultivate an understanding of social issues from a business point of view, an intermediate seminar in the second year that guides students in the scholarly analysis and discussion of identified social issues, and an advanced seminar in the third and fourth years where students further deepen their understanding in fields that spark their interest, finally producing a graduation thesis based on their own research and insights.

Through this innovative and comprehensive curriculum, the Faculty of Commerce and Management develops the future leaders needed to solve the manifold issues facing our society and to create new value for businesses and communities in Asia.