# Nada High School

Nada High School (Japanese: 灘高等学校), is private, college-preparatory, boys school located in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. Nada High School is well known for its severe entrance examination and superior education especially in sciences. Nada High School sends a largest number of its students to University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and top-tier medical school. Nada High School also sends its graduates to prestigious universities abroad (Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, etc.)
Nada High School offers courses a range of electives. In addition, the school offers a concentration program in Judo. The Judo class during freshman year are intended to commemorate the founder of the school, Kanō Jigorō.
Nada High School also offers a range of extracurricular activities, including interscholastic teams in sports, academic clubs, and student-run publications.

## Establishment

The School was found as Nada Middle School by the sake producers of Nada Ku region, Jiroemon Kano (Kiku-Masamune, now Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewing Co., Ltd.), Jihē Kano (Hakutsuru, now Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Company Limited), and Tazaemon Yamamura (Sakuramasamune, now Sakuramasamune Company, Limited). See also Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum and Old Yamamura Residence.
Jigoro Kano, father of Judo born in this Kano family in the town of Mikage (now within Higashinada-ku, Kobe), also helped establish Nada Middle High School. In 1928 he gave a speech to first batch students at Nada Middle School.

## Ranking and reputation

Every year, Nada High School receives over 140 applications for 40 class positions. A considerable number of students from Hokkaido to Kyushu attempt Nada's entrance examination to see how they are. Nada ranks number one amongst high schools in Japan.
Nada High School completes the national curriculum by junior year. The last year is devoted to intense review and preparation for the university entrance exam. Nada High School excels especially in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry. Students of Nada High School often receive Gold Medals for international science olympiads. In total they have won forty gold medals in international science olympiads. Many alumni of Nada High School succeed as scholars including Ryōji Noyori, a Nobel laureate of Chemistry in 2001. Nada High School has traditionally created many well-known writers as well, including Shusaku Endo, Ramo Nakajima, Genichiro Takahashi, etc.
There are no school uniforms and no rules regarding possessions.

## Nada Junior High School

Nada Junior High School is the affiliate school of Nada High School. It has 180 students per grade, and these students go Nada High School unconditionally after they graduate Nada Junior High School.
Nada Junior High School is known as well as Nada High School for its severe entrance exam. Every year, Nada Junior High School receives more than 500 applications.
The curriculum of Nada Junior High School is continuous to that of Nada High School, and students of Nada Junior High School are usually taught by the same teachers for 6 years from their entrance of Nada Junior High School to their graduation of Nada High School.
Nada High School and Nada Junior High School are located in the same site and share many facilities. Many of club activities are for both high school students and junior high school students, and the student government is also unified. So it can be said that students from Nada Junior High School go to the same school for 6 years.

## Notable alumni

* Koro Bessho, Grand Chamberlain to the Emperor
* Shūsaku Endō, writer,Akutagawa Prize winner
* Isshō Fujita, head teacher at Valley Zendo
* Teru Fukui, member of Parliament
* Junichi Hamada, President of the University of Tokyo
* Kizō Hisamoto, Mayor of Kobe
* Kamon Iizumi, member of Parliament
* Masato Kanda, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs
* Masahiko Katsuya, columnist, journalist
* Toshiyuki Kobayashi, mathematician
* Ryōsuke Kōzuki, member of Parliament
* Yūji Kuroiwa, Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture
* Toshiki Mabuchi, mathematician
* Masafumi Miyamoto, founder of SQUARE CO., LTD
* Masahito Moriyama, member of Parliament
* Yoshiaki Murakami, investor
* Ramo Nakajima, writer
* Yugo Nakamura, web designer
* Gania Nishimura, poet and an international civil servant
* Yasutoshi Nishimura, member of Parliament
* Ryōji Noyori, Nobel laureate of Chemistry in 2001
* Shuji Ogino, molecular pathological epidemiologist
* Yasushi Okada, molecular biologist
* Hideyuki Sakai, professional Go player
* Eikei Suzuki, member of Parliament
* Kan Suzuki, member of Parliament
* Masaaki Suzuki, organist, harpsichordist, conductor
* Genichiro Takahashi, writer
* Yasuhiro Tsuji, member of Parliament
* David Toshio Tsumura, Old Testament scholar
* Hisashi Yamamoto, prominent organic chemist
* Ryuichi Yoneyama, member of Parliament