Meet
Tsukuba City
In the 1960s, the Japanese government realized that Tokyo was getting too crowded and decided to relocate its research institutes outside the city limits.
In 1963, "Tsukuba Science City" (筑波研究学園都市) was established, a planned technology-focused
city in the north of Tokyo.
Tsukuba Science
City
The first research institute was established in 1968 and in 1973 the University of Tsukuba was founded. By 1980, the city already had about 40 institutions and had become a functioning research center. In 1985, Tsukuba hosted Expo '85, officially called The International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985.
Tsukuba is located about 60 km northeast of Tokyo in Ibaraki Prefecture. Tokyo's Akihabara district is only 45 minutes from downtown Tsukuba using the "Tsukuba Express" train line. Ibaraki is a traditional rural area of Japan with many plantations, mountains, and coastline to the Pacific Ocean. To the north, Mount Tsukuba dominates the skyline, while to the east, lies Japan's second-largest lake, Lake Kasumigaura.
Mount Tsukuba (筑波山) is home to Japan's third oldest Shinto shrine. The mountain is 877 meters high and can be climbed on foot or visitors can take a cable car to its summit.
By Japanese standards, Tsukuba's population is highly diverse. Tsukuba is home to approximately 210,000 people, with around 7,000 foreign residents from over 90 countries. Some 19,000 researchers work in Tsukuba, with more than 5,000 of them holding doctoral degrees.
University of Tsukuba
The first research institute was established in 1968 and in 1973 the University of Tsukuba was founded. By 1980, the city already had about 40 institutions and had become a functioning research center. In 1985, Tsukuba hosted Expo '85, officially called The International Exposition, Tsukuba, Japan, 1985. In 2023, the University of Tsukuba celebrates its 50th anniversary, and 151 years of history since the conception of the group of colleges that eventually formed the university we have today.
Its founding philosophy states that the University of Tsukuba is "a university open to all inside and outside Japan". The university has won funding projects from the Japanese government for the internationalization of Japanese universities. As of August 2015, the university had more than 300 international inter-university agreements and 13 overseas offices in 12 countries, located in Brazil, China, Germany, France, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Tunisia, Taiwan, the United States, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The University has the motto "Imagine the Future" and has 2,616 teaching staff, 2,284 administrative staff, 16,586 students, 9,797 undergraduate and 6,789 postgraduate (2,251 international students) (May 2020).