GUIDEBOOK

2023

Narita/Haneda airports
Narita Express

Airport limousines(from Narita)(from both airports)

Tokyo monorail(from Haneda)

JR Chuo LineMusashi-Sakai

Shinjuku

TokyoKichijoji
Hamamatsu-cho

JR Yamanote Line

Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University
1-7-1 Kyonancho, Musashino-shi, Tokyo 180-8602, JAPAN
Phone: +81-422-31-4151
E-mail: international@nvlu.ac.jp
Website: https://www.nvlu.ac.jp/en/

“Past, present, and future, fostering the sacred
work of love and science in respectful harmony”
Introduction
I became the President of Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University (NVLU) in
October 2022. As the environment surrounding universities changes rapidly, universities
must also dynamically reform the roles they play in society. Hence, it is sobering to bearsuch a responsibility in the current period.
Upon taking office as president, I would like to first look back on the history of NVLU,
reaffirm our educational philosophy, analyze the current situation, and connect it to thefuture.
Establishment and history
NVLU is the oldest private veterinary school in Japan. It was cofounded in 1881 by nine
young veterinary officers under the age of 30 with the aim of training veterinary
technicians when the task of developing the livestock industry in Japan was an urgent
Hiroetsu Suzuki (President)
priority. It was originally located in Gokokuji in modern-day Otowa, Bunkyo City, Tokyo.
The temple was built by Shogun Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, who issued the famous edict against cruelty to all living beings. Although
the school was temporarily closed in 1889, it reopened in 1892 as the Tokyo Veterinary School. The school’s educational policy at
the time was to ensure technical and theoretical balance in training veterinary practicians equipped with the skills and techniques
to care for animals in real-life situations. The school song, which was composed in 1939, continues to portray the spirit that forms
the basis of the NVLU creed and educational philosophy: “It is for our country that we care and protect the blessings of nature,
blessed are those who respect each other and live in harmony, working diligently at the sacred work of love and science.” Theschool was revived in 1949 as the Nippon Veterinary and Zootechnical College with a department of veterinary science and adepartment of animal husbandry. In 1952, it came under the umbrella of the Nippon Medical School Foundation, which has thelongest history among private medical universities. At present, the school has a Faculty of Veterinary Science (FVS), which includes
a School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) and a School of Veterinary Nursing and Technology (SVNT); and a Faculty of Applied LifeScience (FALS), which includes a School of Animal Science (SAS) and a School of Food Science and Technology (SFST).
Educational philosophy
The university has developed from rather humble beginnings in a temple that loved and cherished life to a training school forveterinarians who could support the growth of the livestock industry. As demands changed, more departments were established,offering specialized education with a focus on practical skills over the ensuing 140 years. In the FVM, we protect the lives ofanimals from disease, whereas in the FALS, we protect the dignity of life and use science for the benefit of mankind. In line with
our school’s creed of “respectful harmony,” our educational philosophy is to foster outstanding veterinarians, specialists, andresearchers, with a love for life and a heart for science through scientific inquiry and education while encompassing a plethora ofvastly different themes. We have produced approximately 20,000 graduates. NVLU has established an educational curriculum thatprovides a variety of specialist training and qualifications to develop veterinarians, pet nurses, livestock artificial insemination
technicians, laboratory animal technicians, curators, junior and senior high school teacher licenses, bioengineers, food safety
managers, and HACCP managers. Graduates of NVLU are active in various fields.
Current status of NVLU
Today, the role of veterinarians is important to realize a mature symbiotic society between humans and animals. SVM was thefirst to open laboratories in new academic fields such as fish diseases and wildlife medicine. Currently, we are at the forefront ofanimal shelter medicine and working on related research and educational activities. SVNT was the first four-year university course
for animal nurses to be established in Japan, and continues to play a leading role in the national certification of pet nurses. With
the advancement of veterinary services, the role of veterinary nurses has become more important in team veterinary medicine.
We are promoting the training of veterinary nurses with specialized knowledge and skills. Furthermore, there is a very realpossibility that Japan’s low self-sufficiency rate will become a matter of life and death as food shortages owing to climate change
and war become more serious. In addition to our convenient campus in the suburbs of central Tokyo, our university has a farm at
the foot of Mt. Fuji. One of the research areas of the SAS is animal husbandry resource science. Using this farm, we are conducting
research to develop more efficient livestock farming with animal welfare and SDGs. One of the themes of the FSFT is thedevelopment and supply of safe, high-quality, highly palatable foods. For example, food research rooted in Japanese food culture,such as cheese using koji and Japanese sake production without sterilization, is being carried out. Last year, our university wasranked first among science universities in terms of patent income per faculty member, and also the best private university interms of the number of MEXT Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research received in veterinary and animal husbandry and related areas.
To the future
NVLU is blessed with specialists in many fields of different life sciences. By meeting and learning together with our faculty
members of diverse backgrounds, you will find your goals, acquire qualifications, enrich your life, and create innovation. I believethat it is important for a university to function as such a place. The Long COVID crisis is about to end. Society has changed
dramatically in a short period, and NVLU is also developing remote lectures and practical training based on Learning Managing
System. I would like to continue to cherish our school’s tradition of emphasizing technical education, which began with aneducation that is similar to individual instruction. The school creed of NVLU is “respectful harmony”. While respecting tradition,
we are open to society, build various partnerships with the outside, and evolve ourselves. We will create new systems andorganizations that are not bound by conventional restraints, and develop research and education unique to NVLU. We would liketo do our best to continue to be a university that contributes to society.
Together with all of our faculty and staff, I am looking forward to meeting curious people who share our philosophy and learn
from each other.

Organization

Graduate School
Faculty of Veterinary
Science

Graduate School of Veterinary
Medicine and Life Science

Doctoral Course in Veterinary Medicine
Doctoral and Masters Courses in Veterinary Nursing and Technology
Doctoral and Masters Courses in Applied Life Science
Laboratory of Veterinary Anatomy

School of Veterinary Medicine

Laboratory of Veterinary Physiology
Laboratory of Veterinary Biochemistry
Laboratory of Comparative Cellular Biology
Laboratory of Biomolecular Chemistry
Laboratory of Comparative Developmental Psychology
Laboratory of Veterinary Medical LawLaboratory of Veterinary Pharmacology
Laboratory of Veterinary Pathology
Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology
Laboratory of Veterinary Infectious Diseases
Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology
Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine
Second Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine
Laboratory of Veterinary Surgery
Laboratory of Veterinary Radiology
Laboratory of Veterinary Reproduction

Nippon Veterinary
and Life Science

Laboratory of Veterinary Clinical Pathology
Laboratory of Large Animal Clinical Medicine

UniversityLaboratory of Comparative and Behavioral Medicine
Laboratory of Aquatic Medicine
Laboratory of Wildlife Medicine
Laboratory of Veterinary HygieneLaboratory of Veterinary Public HealthFaculty of Applied LifeScience

School of Veterinary Nursing

Department of Basic Scienceand Technology

Department of Applied Science
Department of Veterinary Nursing
Laboratory of Animal Systems Management

School of Animal Science

Laboratory of Nature Management and Agri-Food Economics
Laboratory of Animal Nutrition
Laboratory of Animal Physiology
Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Genetics
Laboratory of Animal Reproduction
Laboratory of Applied Animal Biochemistry
Laboratory of Experimental Animal Science
Laboratory of Host Defense for Animals
Laboratory of the English Language
Laboratory of Exercises Science

School of Food Science andTechnologyLaboratory of Food Function
Laboratory of Animal Products Science and Technology
Laboratory of Food Technology
Laboratory of Food Chemistry
Laboratory of Food Hygiene
Laboratory of Agricultural Foods
Laboratory of Food Biotechnology
Laboratory of Food Economics
Laboratory of Food Safety
Laboratory of Basic Food Science
Laboratory of the English Language

Attached Facilities

Library
The Wildlife Museum
Veterinary Medical Teaching HospitalFuji Animal Research Farm
Research Center for Animal Life Science

Common corporation runs
Nippon Medical Schoolhttps://www.nms.ac.jp/college/english.html

Nippon Medical School Nursing School

Graduate Schools
Doctoral Degree in Veterinary Medicine
This 4-year program aims to produce leading researchers and educators in basic, clinical, and applied veterinary medicine.
Students engage in high-level studies on the morphology and function of normal, healthy animals, as well as investigating thepathogenesis, diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of animal diseases. At the end of the program, the graduate student submits thedoctoral thesis and undergoes the defense of the PhD degree. Each student will specialize in one of the following four areas, which
are educated by 16 professors who are experts in the subjects listed in parentheses: Basic Veterinary Science I (genome physiology,pathological biochemistry), Basic Veterinary Science II (comparative pharmacology, oncoimmunology & inflammatory pathology),
Clinical Veterinary Medicine (veterinary internal medicine, veterinary cardiology & nephrology, veterinary surgery, theriogenology,
veterinary radiology, veterinary clinical pathology, and veterinary clinical neurology), or Applied Veterinary Medicine (behavioralneuroscience, aquatic medicine, wildlife medicine, veterinary hygiene, and veterinary public health).

Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Veterinary Nursing and Technology
The Graduate School of Veterinary Nursing and Technology produces leading researchers and educators in the field ofveterinary nursing and technology. The 2-year master’s program offers two areas, such as "Clinical Sciences for Veterinary
Nursing" and "Biosciences for Veterinary Technology", while the 3-year doctoral program offers an "Advanced Veterinary Nursingand Technology" that includes advanced veterinary nursing, animal physiology and anatomy, and environmental sciences.

Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Applied Life Science
The Graduate School of Applied Life Science offers integrated Master’s and doctoral courses. The 2-year Master’s program
comprises five subject areas, while the 3-year doctoral program is in one subject area. The aim of these programs is to encourage
talented students to acquire profound knowledge and skill in their specialized field and to nurture their creative thinking as
scientists so that they become excellent professionals and researchers in the field of Animal and Food Sciences.

Undergraduate Schools
School of Veterinary Medicine
This school provides students with knowledge and skills associated with multiple fields of veterinary medicine, such as medicalcare and sanitary control of animals, defense against zoonotic diseases, and public health in human society (e.g., food hygiene andenvironmental management). In addition, the school trains veterinarians so that they can respond to the needs of society andadapt to areas of advanced medicine that require a high degree of specialization, such as molecular biology and geneticengineering. With a curriculum that covers everything from the basics to clinical application, this school fosters practical skills thatenable precise measures to be used in situations where general veterinary skills are required.

School of Veterinary Nursing and Technology
This school nurtures veterinary para-professionals, who are increasingly in demand with increased globalization. This includes
specialists with an advanced knowledge of veterinary nursing for companion animals (National qualifications), wildlife
management and maintenance of the global environment, who can cooperate with veterinarians by advanced technology, whocomprehend zoonotic diseases and can assist with animal hygiene and public health practices, who can contribute to animalassisted activity and the production of service animals, and who can act as animal welfare officials and animal welfare promoters asdetermined by the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals.

School of Animal Science
Educational programs in this school focus on three areas that will deepen the student’s knowledge and advance research in
the field of animal science: (i) breeding, reproduction, and nutrition; (ii) genetic engineering and biotechnology; and (iii)management and economics.

School of Food Science and Technology
This school offers students the unique opportunity to acquire both scientific knowledge and research skills in the following
food related areas: palatability, nutrition, and physiological function; processing, preservation, and safety; effective utilizationof resources; and distribution system and economics. During their 4 years of education, students will gain extensive knowledge
and enhance their level of creative and analytical thinking to become specialists in the field of food science.

Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
The three major objectives of our teaching hospital are practice, education, and research. The hospital includes departments
of internal medicine, soft tissue and orthopedic surgery, radiology, cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, endocrinology,nephrology, neurology, ophthalmology, theriogenology, dermatology, oncology, physical rehabilitation and behavioral
medicine. We see approximately 10,000 visits (dogs and cats) per year, most of which are referred from private practitioners.

Fuji Animal Research Farm
Our research farm covers 12 hectares and includes stall barns, loose barns for feedlot, stables, pasture areas, compostingsystems, and lodging facility. Dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goats, horses are kept on the farm, and activities on the farmencompass four key principles: education, research, food production, and contribution to society.

The Wildlife Museum
Our museum publicly exhibits the achievements of NVLU’s academic pursuits and also serves as a learning institution. It is
divided into two departments: the Historical Department, which exhibits the history of NVLU and veterinary medicine in Japan,
and the Nature Department, which mainly highlights the issues of interactions between humans and wild animals.