About Us

At Hitotsubashi ICS, we are achieving the “Best of Two Worlds“ by acting as a bridge between cultures, academic disciplines, and business mindsets.

As dean, I send my warmest welcome to Hitotsubashi ICS.

ICS shares the long-time mission of its parent school, Hitotsubashi University, which is to nurture the “Captains of Industry.” Our university forefathers, with their great wisdom and foresight, procured a site in Tokyo’s business district just blocks away from the Imperial Palace. The palace grounds, with lush greenery, are surrounded by urban multiplexes, sparkling corporate HQs, innumerable eateries, and easy access to subway and rail transportation.

ICS was established in 2000 as Japan’s first global, all-English MBA program. Hitotsubashi University, itself, started out in 1875 as an institute for business training, tasked with producing “modern” businessmen. ICS shares with Hitotsubashi University a staunch commitment to excellence in business education and academic research, and, like its parent school, demonstrates a strong pioneering spirit. ICS quickly established its unique positioning in Japan with the launch of English-only MBA and DBA programs, which are supported by a depth of research, a strong network with business leaders and innovators, and an international faculty and student body. Today, through its very own Signature Courses, ICS teaches at the frontier of business education.

It is our policy to keep the entering classes small. Our student-faculty ratio is 5:1. The students belong to seminars, a format that allows for regular group discussions. These seminars are led by faculty members. The small size of the entering class gives students the opportunity to work closely with each other and also their professors. They can get to know each other well, both inside and outside the classroom. The “ICS Experience” often results in strong relationships, sometimes even life-long relationships.

We design our program as a “leadership development journey.” We do more than just equip our students with 21st century skills. Through our core MBA courses and an integrated set of our own courses, students will: (1) discover their own leadership philosophy and an authentic leadership style; (2) understand diverse perspectives; and (3) embrace the complexities of reality, taking a large step toward becoming a wise leader, one that can lead others in this unpredictable, complex world, for the betterment of society.

At ICS, all that we do is guided by our Mission, Vision, and Core Values. Learn how these contribute to a premium learning experience.

I invite you to explore the “ICS Difference.” You can view our website and register for the next online Admission Event, and take part in an Open Campus event. For anyone aspiring to a stellar global career, the keys are a willingness to see the world from a different perspective and a pioneering spirit.

Emi Osono, Ph.D.
Dean, Professor

We demonstrate the spirit of Hitotsubashi ICS through dedication to our mission, vision, core values and principles.

MISSION | why we do what we do

Embracing complexity and achieving the “Best of Two Worlds” – by acting as a bridge linking Japan to Asia and the globe, and as an international center of excellence for the creation, management and dissemination of knowledge.

VISION | what we strive to be

To be one of the world’s prominent business schools, developing global-minded leaders who are expert on Japan, connected to Asia, and capable of making a significant and positive impact.

Class of 2000

Hitotsubashi University, producing the "Captains of Industry."

Hitotsubashi University began life as the “Institute for Business Training” in the heart of Tokyo in 1875. Its program featured an accounting course, and an English conversation course taught by an American. After the big Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed almost all of the Institute’s structures, the school moved to the Kunitachi area, just outside Tokyo, where the main campus of Hitotsubashi University is still situated today.

Hitotsubashi University is a public, national institution administered by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was founded by Arinori Mori, a strong believer in the importance of modernization and business education in Japan. In his youth, Mori studied in Great Britain, and in his professional career served as ambassador to the Qing Dynasty and to Great Britain, and as a Japanese delegate to the United States. He was appointed Japan's first Minister of Education in 1885.

The Institute for Business Training

Hitotsubashi University has turned out towering figures in Japanese business dating back to Eiichi Shibusawa, a contributor to the foundation of the Hitotsubashi University, also an industrialist widely known as the “Father of Japanese Capitalism.” Many Hitotsubashi graduates are captains of industry, such as Hiroshi Okuda, former president and chairman of the Toyota Motor Corporation (1999-2006), the first president of the company not from the company’s founding family; and Hiroshi Mikitani, founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, Inc., Japan’s largest e-commerce site.

In 2000, ICS was established in Kanda, the birthplace of Hitotsubashi University, as the first national business school in Japan to offer all classes in English.