President
Yuzuru Kaneko, DDS, PhD.

Tokyo Dental College was founded in 1890 by Kisai Takayama as Takayama Dental School, and its purpose was to give Japanese students the opportunity to learn modern American dental medicine. Ten years later, his successor, Morinosuke Chiwaki, changed the name to Tokyo Dental School, with new facilities located in Suidobashi area of Tokyo.

Since the end of the 19th century, Japan has worked hard to modernize its social system. The college was born at a time of momentous social change. Kisai Takayama went to America in 1872 and he obtained USA license to practice dentistry. At the time he opened a practice in Tokyo 6 years later, dentistry was not yet recognized as a profession in Japan. Only basic dentistry ― extraction for toothache or treatment of oral mucosal disease was available. Oral surgery, restoration, orthodontics and the recovery of masticatory function by use of dentures were unheard of. Moreover, as the new government had adopted a policy to strengthen the country, little attention was paid toward the development of dental education. Despite these problems, Morinosuke Chiwaki succeeded in getting his school awarded professional school status in 1907. The school was awarded full college status in 1946, making it the first college of dental education in Japan. Thus, the history of our college represents a contribution to Japan's modernization, and it has continued to pioneer dental medicine and treatment in this country.

Now, in the increasingly-globalized world, one key mission of the college is to produce young dentists capable of playing a major role on the international stage. And we are seeing a close relationship between oral health and general health in the biological sciences. From origins as a small clinic, we can now boast as a major institution of dental education. The college also has a general hospital with 570 beds and 20 departments. This hospital makes a major contribution to the local community in terms of health care while providing a venue for the further education and clinical training and collaborative research with those in the medical field. With the view to move forward with the times, we decided to move our main campus to Suidobashi in central Tokyo, with the first crop of freshman receiving their education there from April 2012. The new college will form an organic triangle with our facilities in Chiba and general hospital in Ichikawa, to contribute to the community healthcare and dental education.

While continuously striving to live up to our proud reputation as a pioneer in the field of dental education in Japan, we will never forget the spirit of the philosophy of Morinosuke Chiwaki: "Character building is the first step in becoming a dentist."

Dean
Yoshinobu Ide, DDS, PhD.

Tokyo Dental College marked its 120th anniversary in 2010. Its predecessor, Takayama Dental School, was founded in 1890 as the first institution of dental education in Japan. Since then, the college has continued to contribute to the development of dental medicine and the oral health of the nation for over a century. We can now boast a long record of furnishing our students with the knowledge and skills they need to provide the best that modern dental medicine has to offer, thus earning the trust of our patients.

Recent years have seen remarkable progress in the field of medicine and dental medicine. And nowhere more so than in the field of regenerative medicine, which promises great changes in what we can expect from medicine in the future. We are now faced with a rapidly aging population. It will be the duty of the dental professional to help this group retain oral health and function, thus ensuring that the patient's overall health will also be maintained. This means that the dentist will need to be able to diagnose and treat dental problems while also identifying their potential effect on overall systemic health.

In addition, the globalization of society as a whole means we must now aim at fostering young dentists capable of playing an active role on the international stage. To this end, we are actively engaged in fostering international academic exchange both in education and research, and have already established mutually rewarding sister-school relationships in many countries. Such opportunities will henceforth be available not only to our staff, but also our undergraduate students, and we are now developing programs aimed at broadening their international outlook while still in school. As a part of this project, we have initiated an Elective Study Program aimed at equipping our alumni with the high level of education they will need to provide the medical care that will be expected from them. In addition, we aim to remain a dental school with a heart, never forgetting our educational philosophy based on our foundation motto: "Character building is the first step in becoming a dentist".

Tokyo Dental College is proud of its tradition and status as the oldest institute of dental education in Japan. On this, our 120th anniversary, our main campus will move to Suidobashi in Tokyo, making history as we move forward into the coming century. We are firm in our resolution to contribute to the oral health of the community. We will do so by promoting the continuous development of dental medicine through cooperation with other medical colleges and medical institutions. Thus, together with our other two facilities in Chiba and Ichikawa, we will provide cutting-edge medical care to all our patients.