UTokyo東京大学男女共同参画室ニュースレター
Newsletter of Office for Gender Equality

vol.

03

AY2024Mar.

Trial run of career development
support course for researchers
took place

As a trial for the leadershipdevelopment programs for female
faculty members, a "Women’s
Networking for the Future ofUniversities" event was held on
December 4th, 2023, with thecooperation from the 30% ClubT Equity Initiative #WeChange”

University Group.

is an initiative to develop female

Tsukiko Tsukahara, President ofleaders that has "seamless career

Kaleidist K.K., the speakers, whodevelopment for female researchers

are in positions involved in thefrom graduate to senior management

management of universities andhe “UTokyo Gender

After a special lecture by Ms.

research institutes, such as executivelevel” as its second target.
Trial programs were implemented
in AY2023 under two action plans:
training courses to foster researchto each other help themselves tovice presidents and vice presidents

improve their performance.

from the University of Tokyo, Iwate

We also attempted a workshop

University, National Women's

team leaders; and leadershipin which participants mapped on aEducation Center (NWEC), as well as

development programs for femaleworksheet how many peers they haduniversities participating in the 30%

faculty members.

who read their papers and gave themClub, discussed the landscape they

feedback, if they had mentors, role

have seen since becoming involved

research team leader, young

models, and others who lifted themin management, what they werefaculty members, both male andup and gave them opportunities forable to achieve and what were thefemale, participated in the “Writing

growth, and then develop a plan toadvantages of their current position.

Challenge”. Participating members

make up for the lacking connections.

In the Training courses to foster

Afterwards, mentee faculty

log in to Zoom at a set time eachThis program currently being

morning, such as 8:00 to 8:30, andpiloted will be implemented inuniversities were divided into groups

concentrate on writing papers for

AY2024 for all researchers afﬁliatedwith one or two mentors. Each group

their own beneﬁt.

with the University of Tokyo. In a few

discussed “what they would like tomembers from UTokyo and otheryears, we plan to have a system that

accomplish if they were involved infaculty members and others whocan welcome 150 participants per

the management of an organization”.

have difﬁculty ﬁnding time to work onyear. We will make an announcement

their day-to-day duties to set aside

on the #WeChange website, etc., andsome time, say 30 minutes each day,encourage everyone to apply andand by reporting

take part.

The goal was to encourage young

About＃WeChange

About＃30%Club1

〈The Office for Gender Equality Reporting Team Visiting
Graduate Schools and Institutes〉

Professor Yukitoshi Motome,
School of Engineering, UTokyo –NEWS!

Childcare foradmissions work,
partial cost support
In FY2023, the Ofﬁce for Gender
Equality provided support toToward the creation of an environment inwhich all constituents can work andlearn easily.

cover a portion of the cost ofusing paid services such asbabysitters, childcare facilities,

e interviewed Professor

W Motome, whoand services to look after school

was a member of the Gender
Equality Ofﬁce Committee at theand February 25th duringchildren on January 13th, 14th,
entrance exam duties.

time of the School of Engineering's

In a notice issued in January

issuance of the "Declaration of2024, Prof.Naoko Yoshie, Vice

Action for Workplace Reform" inPresident and Director of theMarch 2023.

Ofﬁce for Gender Equality,stated, "This support is not

Click here toread more

intended to encourage assigning
admission duties on the days
off to those faculty members
who have to leave their children
behind. We ask each department
to maintain the policy of making

Guidelines for Students on Diversity of
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity at
the University of Tokyo

the utmost effort to continue toaccommodate their needs.

he University of Tokyo has established “The University of Tokyo

T Charter” and “The University of Tokyo Statement on Diversity &University of Tokyo has formulated student guidelines focusing on diversity in

The IR Cubed 2023 andthe Intellectual Property
Report of UTokyo 2023
were publishedsexual orientation and gender identity after soliciting public opinions

Our efforts forwithin the University.

Gender Equality andInclusion” and guarantees that all members of our community are free fromdiscrimination, based on our recognition of importance of having diversity in
its constituent members. As a part of its efforts to realize these principles, theClick here toread more#WeChange wereintroduced in the reports.
(Currently in Japanese only)

Nine leaders in 30% ClubJapan University Group have publishedcommitments for diverse university management(Currently in Japanese only)

Click here toread more2

Activity Report
Seminar on Diversity andInclusion 2023
On October 2nd, 2023, we held the 2023
Diversity & Inclusion Awareness Seminarfor faculty and staff. This year, we invited Dr.
Makiko Deguchi, a professor in the Departmentof English Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies,Sophia University, to give a talk entitled Making
Privilege Visible: Reﬂecting on our Dominant
and Subordinated Identities , which wasattended by 287 people.

Opinion Exchange Meetingfor the Five-year Plan toAccelerate the Increasein Female Faculty Members
took place
On November 2nd and 6th, the third Opinion
Exchange Meeting for the Five-year Plan toAccelerate the Increase in Female Faculty
Members in AY2023 was held. This time,
we invited Dr. Kathy Takayama, Executive
Director for Professional Development andDiversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Center
for Professional Development and Inclusive
Excellence (C-Hub) of the Okinawa Institute ofScience and Technology Graduate University(OIST) to give a talk entitled Opportunities toRevise Hiring Search Practices in Universities
to Improve Equity and Excellence .

Activity Report of Office for Gender Equality
Seminar for heads ofLunch Meeting withthe departments inUndergraduate Students
the Administration Bureau
On Monday, October 30th, 2023, a lunch
and the administrative heads meeting was held with 5 undergraduateof the graduate schools and students, Prof. Naoko Yoshie (Vice President ofUTokyo and Director of the Ofﬁce for Genderresearch institutesEquality) and Prof. Sachiko Asai (Chair, theOn September 19th and October 25th, twoseminars on D&I were held for UTokyo ssenior executives and administrativemanagers. The ﬁrst session was for theuniversity executives and deans/directors,
while the second session was for the heads ofthe departments in the Administration Bureau
and the administrative heads of the graduate
schools and research institutes.

Dialogue at UTokyo GlobE ＃4
was held: Serena SacksMandel s Lecture Meeting
On Thursday, November 9th, the Fourth
Dialogue at UTokyo GlobE was held as acollaborative event by GlobE and UTokyo
Gender Equity Initiative #WeChange. The event
featured a lecture titled Empowered -Frame
your Narrative, Own your Power- madepossible by the visit of Serena Sacks-Mandel,
the Global CTO for Education at Microsoft.

Next Generation Nurture Committee) at
Komaba Campus. They viewed the GuidanceVideo for New Students created by the Ofﬁce
for Gender Equality and exchanged opinion
about the video.

AY2023 Gender Equity
Training Understanding
Our Own Biases : Training
Video is Now Available
The number of participants during the course
period from September 6th to October 31th,
2023 was 13,146 (participation rate: 78%). The
training video is now available on Todai TV(on-campus only, login required). https://tv.he.
u-tokyo.ac.jp/course_12123/
A list of references cited in the training video
is also available.

The Embassy of the Kingdomof the Netherlands organized
an event on December 13th
For International Human Rights Day, thedocumentary "Seven Winters in Tehran"was screened with accompanying dialogue
session.

Visiting Other Universities
Online Intensive Lecture
Introduction to Gendered
Innovation was held
Between Tuesday, February 13th and Thursday,
February 15th, 2024, an online intensive
lecture on gendered innovation was held as acollaborative event by Ochanomizu University,
the University of Tokyo, and Tohoku University,where students from the three universities
learned together.

We visited Kobe University, Okayama
University, and Kyoto University. In Kyoto
University, we visited newly opened child carecenter called KuSuKu . A member will visit
Yamaguchi University in March.

On February 6th, 2024
UTokyo Women+ Researchers
Network Meeting was held
The Ofﬁce for Gender Equality has been holding
the UTokyo Women+ Let s Create a Networkof Researchers meetings since AY2014 withthe main purpose of supporting the careerdevelopment and networking of femaleresearchers. This networking event welcomes
all researchers, regardless of gender and ageand so on, and is being developed with the aimof creating a large network of researchers
within the university. This year, we focused oncommunication among researchers.
3Upcoming
今後の予定 Events
March 7th - 8th

March 17th

The members of the Office for Gender Equality will give aposter presentation during the Inclusive Communication
Symposium 2024 held at the Okinawa Institute ofScience and Technology Graduate University (OIST)Dream Realization Project: Career Choices forJunior and Senior High School Girls
Metaverse School of Engineering will hold an
event for female junior high andhigh school students

March 15th

To celebrate the International Women s Day,
four speakers will discuss the theme
Female Researchers at UTokyo – Why So Few?
Organized by: Office for Gender Equality, UTokyo
Date and Time: Friday, March 15th, 2024, 13:30-15:00
Location: Monitor Area in Library Plaza, (General Library) / onsite only

AY2024The Office for Gender Equality will beincorporated into UTokyo Center for
Coproduction of Inclusion,Diversity and Equity (IncluDE), and renamed
the Office for Gender Equity, as of April 2024.

https://www.lib.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/library/general/user-guide/library-plaza/monitor

Language: Japanese
Eligible participants: Members of UTokyo (students, faculty and staff members),
maximum of 30 people
Speakers and moderators:
Hiromi Yokoyama(Professor, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe)

Kentaro Maeda(Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy Studies)

Mariko Ogawa(Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies/
Deputy Director, Ofﬁce for Gender Equality)

Madoka Nakano(Project Assistant Professor, Ofﬁce for Gender Equality)

Academic Frontier Lecture Series will beoffered in A-semester in AY2024.

Understanding Gender Gap through Data

Why so few female students are at the University of TokyoChallenges from rural areas
Relationship Between Objective
YourChoiceProject・Rion Kawasaki

Academic Achievement and Self-evaluation
High 5

4Self-evaluation

32

11Low

23

4

Objective Academic Achievement
Females from rural areas
Males from rural areas
Females from the Tokyo metropolitan area
Males from the Tokyo metropolitan area

5HighFor many years, the female student
ratio at the University of Tokyo
has remained at around 20%, andone contributing factor is the low
representation of female students fromregional areas, which is less than 10%
annually.
There is a tendency for parents offemale students from regional areas
to have a lower expectation for female
students to attend a high-ranking
university based on entrance exam
scores compared to male students.
Consequently, there is a tendency forless educational investment in them.
Furthermore, female students tend
to prioritize obtaining qualiﬁcations
over high entrance exam scores, avoid
retaking entrance exams, and facehigher expectations from parents
to attend a university close to theirhometown compared to male students.
Another contributing factor amongfemale students from regional areas
is is "low self-esteem". In a survey

Ofﬁce for Gender Equality, The University of Tokyo

conducted by #YourChoiceProject, whichtargeted 4,000 high school students
nationwide, the results indicated thatwithin the same "objective academic
ability" range, female students fromregional areas had signiﬁcantly lower
self-esteem compared to female
students from the Tokyo metropolitan
area or male students from regionalareas.
Moreover, a notable difference in selfesteem was found based on the numberof role models. This was measured
through the question to students fromregional high schools who advance tothe top 5% and entered UTokyo, "Howmany seniors or acquaintances (people
you have spoken to) around them are
studying at UTokyo?"
We hope that various student-led
initiatives focusing on the continuouspresentation of role models, beyond
school visits, will be supported andﬂourish in various ways from ouruniversity.

〒133-8654 Hongo Bunkyo-ku 7-3-1

Date of issue: March 1st, 20244