Article content

TOKYO — The Japanese government launched an investigation Friday into whether the nation’s medical schools have discriminated against female applicants, following revelations that one had done so for more than a decade.

The Education Ministry sent a questionnaire to all medical schools asking them for six years of data on the genders and ages of all applicants, those who passed the entrance exam and those who were admitted.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Japan queries all medical schools on gender discrimination Back to video

The questionnaire also asks if the schools took the precaution in this year’s exam of masking the IDs of applicants including their names, ages and genders in deciding whether they passed.

The ministry set a deadline of Aug. 24 for responses.

A Tokyo medical school released an internal investigation earlier this week that confirmed media reports that it had altered entrance exam scores to limit the number of female students. Tokyo Medical University said it believed female doctors would shorten or halt their careers if they had children, affecting hospital staffing.