About

Leading the creation of a new society and pioneering the future: Yokohama City University

Since its incorporation in 2005, Yokohama City University (YCU) has undertaken transformation with its gaze fixed on the future. Looking back at recent years, we established the Tokyo metropolitan area's first School of Data Science in 2018, reorganized the International College of Arts and Sciences into the School of International Liberal Arts, School of Economics and Business Administration, and School of Science in 2019, and opened the Graduate School of Data Science in 2020. We also opened a satellite campus within Yokohama Landmark Tower in the Minato Mirai 21 district, with the aim of encouraging industry-academia collaboration.

Over the course of three years from 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spread across the globe. Amid the building of a new world, university education and international exchanges, too, have been pressed to undergo a major rethinking. To fulfill our mission as an institution of higher education, YCU has also strived to maintain and enhance the quality of its education, all while enacting measures including on-campus infection control, improvement of the online class environment, education-related digital transformation (DX), and international exchanges conducted online. In the areas of research and contribution to the community, we are making focused efforts in the development of domains that are strengths of YCU. These include research into COVID-19 and the application of its outcomes to society using data science; research into life sciences, medicine including cancer and intractable diseases; and research into urban problems and proposals for addressing them, contributing to policy-based healthcare in Yokohama and in Kanagawa Prefecture.

As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, we will make a return to pre-pandemic conditions that include in-person classes and international exchanges, while also making use of our experiences over the past three years to advance education and research that make use of online environments.

As President of YCU, I aim to present a vision under which we can play a leading role in the fields of education, research, and healthcare, advancing together with the international city of Yokohama to achieve our institution’s mission through its activities.
Michiko Aihara_2023

Michiko Aihara
YCU's 22nd President

President’s Vision 2023

Leading the creation of a new society and pioneering the future:
Yokohama City University

Through collective intelligence that fuses diverse fields of knowledge, YCU aims to create new value. By becoming a base for the creation of innovation through academic research, YCU seeks to contribute to the sustainable development of our community and of the world, and to the achievement of diverse forms of well-being for people.

Education

Cultivation of human resources who will lead the future of communities and society and who will make contributions to the world
  • Cultivation of human resources who possess abundant education and advanced expertise backed by high ethical standards
  • Provision of an environment that nurtures the capabilities for taking action at the global level
  • Cultivation of human resources who are able to create new value and work toward solutions to societal issues
  • Creation of an environment and learning that respect diversity

Research

Advancement of cutting-edge research that opens up the future
  • Promotion of creative and innovative research that contributes to solving global issues
  • Promotion and transmission of world-class research
  • Creation of innovation through leading interdisciplinary research
  • Collaborative creation of a base for knowledge that connects to both our community and the world

Social contribution

Contribution to the sustainable development of both local and international communities
  • Contribution to the building of a healthy and vibrant society through the cultivation of outstanding human resources and the return of research achievements to society
  • Provision of high-level and safe healthcare that adheres to the highest standards
  • Promotion of industry-academia-government co-creation as a platform for solving issues in local and international communities
  • Preparation of an environment that enables lifelong learning and cultivation of diverse human resources who support local communities

University operations

Operation that responds flexibly to social change and leads advancement
  • Autonomous and sustainable management through the strengthening of management foundations
  • Strategic industry-academia-government collaboration and development planning
  • A collaborative structure for academic and administrative staff who are capable of responding quickly to social changes
  • Construction of an environment in which diversity is respected and all academic and administrative staff can play active roles


In 2028, YCU will celebrate its 100th anniversary, counting from the founding of Yokohama City College of Commerce. YCU Hospital celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021, counting from the opening of the Yokohama provisional hospital. Drawing on the traditions of these, YCU will continue contributing in wide-ranging ways to the advancement of society, seeking to always be a source of pride for the citizens of Yokohama.

(April 1, 2023)

MISSION STATEMENT


YCU's mission is to fulfill its roles and responsibilities of education, research and medical care, and as a part of the urban social infrastructure of a knowledge-based society in the international city of Yokohama. We aspire to become a university that contributes to the development of a sustainable society and a university in which local residents can take pride.
ycu-mission1
Education
To nurture global human resources who can soar to the world from Yokohama
Research
To create and support leading research which contributes back to society
Healthcare
To provide top-quality healthcare and promote medical knowledge

Facts & Figures

 

4,279


undergraduate students

808


graduate students

758


faculty members

1,297


students actively utilizing our Career Support Center in a year

2,770


alumni registered with our Career Supporter System

History & Traditions

The origin of Yokohama City University can be traced back to Yokohama School of Commerce founded in 1882. Since the opening of the port, Yokohama turned into a center of trade in Japan. Yokohama School of Commerce was established to develop human resources equipped with western commercial techniques. Because of its policy of complete educational pragmatism, many children of merchants in Yokohama who had a strong interest in learning attended this school. After graduation, many of them contributed to the development of the city in the front lines of trade industry. Yokohama School of Commerce then developed into Yokohama City College of Commerce, which is the origin of Yokohama City University. Another origin of YCU is Juzen Hospital of Nogeyama in 1874. Although Yokohama was the center of western medicine at that time, there was no hospital for the citizens. Juzen Hospital was established to respond to the earnest needs of the community. Juzen Hospital then turned into Yokohama Municipal Medical College, which has developed into what is known today as the YCU Hospital and School of Medicine.
OUR TRADITIONS
OUR HISTORY
 
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1960
Kanazawa-Hakkei Campus

YCU & Yokohama

As the first port in Japan to open to the world in 1859, Yokohama is a place where the new and the old come together in harmony. While the city is at the cutting edge of technology, it also cherishes its many historic assets. It offers the dynamism and diversity of city life, but also havens of serenity with more quiet locales such as its traditional Japanese garden.

A lot of our students come from Kanagawa prefecture and hold Yokohama close to their hearts, and because of that we aspire to become a university that contributes to the development of a sustainable society and a university in which local residents can take pride.

Campuses

  • ycu kanazawa hakkei campus

    Kanazawa-Hakkei Campus

    22-2 Seto, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0027 JAPAN

    Kanazawa-hakkei campus is YCU’s main campus, which houses the university’s trademark clock tower and ginkgo tree-lined main streets. Kanazawa-hakkei campus includes YCU’s Central Administration, all of YCU’s undergraduate schools (besides the School of Medicine), the Graduate School Urban Social and Cultural Studies, the Graduate School of International Management, and the Graduate School of Nanobioscience’s department of Materials System Science.

     

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  • ycu fukuura campus

    Fukuura Campus

    3-9 Fukuura, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama 236-0004 JAPAN

    Fukuura campus houses YCU’s undergraduate and Graduate Schools of Medicine, Yokohama City University Hospital, and the Advanced Medical Research Center. The university hospital is connected to the Yokohama Seaside Line’s Shidai-igakubu station and overlooks Tokyo Bay.

     

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  • Maioka Campus

    641-12 Maioka-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama 244-0813 JAPAN

    Surrounded by a vast amount of greens in Yokohama’s Totsuka Ward, YCU’s Maioka campus houses the Graduate School of Nanobioscience’s Department of Life and Environmental System Science and the Kihara Institute for Biological Research (KIBR), which is one of the foremost plant research institutions in the world studying wheat. The Maioka campus also houses the Kihara Memorial Room, and has, in recent times, been visited by the Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita of Japan.

     

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  • Tsurumi Campus

    1-7-29 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045 JAPAN

    Located in northeastern Yokohama, by the Tsurumi River, YCU’s Tsurumi campus was established in 2001 as a graduate school partnership between YCU and Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution, RIKEN. Tsurumi campus houses the Graduate School of Medical Life Science.

     

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  • Minato Mirai Satellite Campus

    2-2-1, Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-0012 JAPAN

    In April 1st, 2020, Yokohama City University will open its new satellite campus within Yokohama Landmark Tower in the city’s Minato Mirai business district. The campus will be located within NANA Level (NANA Lv.), an innovation center managed by Mitsubishi Estates. The new campus will focus on providing data science courses through the newly established Graduate School of Data Science.

     

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