The story
Foundation and early years (1881–1922)
Tokyo Institute of Technology was founded by the government of Japan as the Tokyo Vocational School on May 26, 1881, 14 years after the Meiji Restoration. To accomplish the quick catch-up to the West, the government expected this school to cultivate new modernized craftsmen and engineers. In 1890, it was renamed "Tokyo Technical School". In 1901, it changed name to "Tokyo Higher Technical School".
Great Kantō earthquake and World War II (1923–1945)
In early days, the school was located in Kuramae, the eastern area of the Greater Tokyo Area, where many craftsmens' workshops had been since the old Shōgun's era. The buildings in Kuramae campus were destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. In the following year, the Tokyo Higher Technical School moved from Kuramae to the present site in Ōokayama, a south suburb of the Greater Tokyo Area. In 1929, the school became Tokyo University of Engineering, later renamed to Tokyo Institute of Technology around 1946, gaining a status of national university, which allowed the university to award degrees. The university had the Research Laboratory of Building Materials in 1934, and five years later, the Research Laboratory of Resources Utilisation and the Research Laboratory of Precision Machinery were constructed. The Research Laboratory of Ceramic Industry was made in 1943, and one year before World War Two ended, the Research Laboratory of Fuel Science and the Research Laboratory of Electronics were founded.
Post-War Era (1946–present)
After World War II, the new education system was promulgated in 1949 with the National School Establishment Law, and Tokyo Institute of Technology was reorganized. Many three-year courses were turned into four-year courses with the start of the School of Engineering this year. The university started graduate programmes in engineering in 1953. In the following year, the six research laboratories were integrated and reorganised into four new labs: the Research Laboratory of Building Materials, the Research Laboratory of Resources Utilization, the Precision and Intelligence Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Ceramic Industry, and the School of Engineering was renamed the School of Science and Engineering.
Throughout the post-war reconstruction of the 1950s, the high economic growth era of the 1960s, and the aggressive economic era marching to the Bubble Economy of the 1980s, TIT kept providing Japan its leading engineers, researchers, and business persons. Since April 2004, it has been semi-privatized into the National University Incorporation of Tokyo Institute of Technology under a new law which applied to all national universities.
Operating the world-class supercomputer Tsubame 2.0, and making a breakthrough in high-temperature superconductivity, Tokyo Tech was a major centre for supercomputing technology and condensed matter research in the world.
In 2011, it celebrated the 130th anniversary of its founding. In 2014, it joined the edX consortium and formed the Online Education Development Office (OEDO) to create MOOCS, which are hosted on the edX website.
In its 130 years, Tokyo Tech has provided scientific researchers, engineers and many social leaders, including Naoto Kan who was a former prime minister.
From Wikipedia’s article on Tokyo Institute of Technology, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4