The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has released the results of an emergency survey of the 81 universities nationwide with medical schools or departments.
The ministry conducted the survey after it was revealed that Tokyo Medical University has been suppressing the number of successful female and other examinees it admits.
The findings, which were released Tuesday, showed that the average pass rate over the last six years was higher among men at 63 universities, or about 80 percent of the total. Women had lower pass rates for all six years at 19 universities. Aside from Tokyo Medical University, all the schools have denied manipulating scores based on gender or other factors.
The survey covered 81 universities, including Tokyo Women's Medical University but not the National Defense Medical College, which is under the jurisdiction of the Defense Ministry. They were asked about their entrance exams for the 2013 to 2018 academic years. So-called AO (admissions office-managed) admissions and recommendation-based admissions were also included.
Juntendo University in Tokyo had the largest male-female disparity at 1.67 times. At Juntendo, 9.2 percent of men were admitted compared to 5.5 percent of women.
The men's rate surpassed the women's rate for six straight years at 19 universities, including Juntendo University, Niigata University in Niigata Prefecture and Kyushu University in Fukuoka Prefecture.
The women's rate surpassed the men's rate for six straight years at Hirosaki University in Aomori Prefecture and Mie University in Mie Prefecture.
At Tokyo Medical University, where the scores of women and other classes of examinee were lowered, the six-year average pass rate for men was 6.8 percent and 5.3 percent for women.
By school year, the women's rate exceeded the men's rate in the 2017 school year, but the men's rate was 9 percent in the 2018 school year, three times higher than the 3 percent for women that year.
The ministry plans to release more detailed findings from the survey, perhaps as early as October.
In August, The Yomiuri Shimbun conducted a nationwide survey of pass rates at medical schools and departments. Of the 76 universities that responded, 77 percent, or 59 universities, said that men had a higher pass rate than women in this spring's general entrance exams.
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