A Tokyo medical school that made it difficult for female students to pass entrance exams was ordered to compensate 13 women for gender discrimination.

As a medical school admissions scandal disclosed illegal procedures at multiple schools, Juntendo University announced in 2018 that it has raised the bar for women in tests in order to "narrow the gap with male students"

Presiding Judge Makiko Kamoto called the university's unjust treatment "irrational and discriminatory," adding that private universities are likewise required to follow Article 14 of the Constitution, which forbids gender discrimination.

Having applicants take admission exams while hiding the acceptance criteria is "constitutes illegal behavior as it infringes on the freedom of candidates to choose which university to apply to," according to Kamoto, because it restricts candidates' freedom to choose which university to apply to.

At the time, the institution claimed that women had superior communication abilities and hence had an advantage in the interview portion of their applications.

Juntendo was ordered to pay the plaintiffs, according to a Tokyo district court official, with local media stating that the total compensation was roughly $8 million (US$62,000). The university was unavailable for comment.

According to the ruling, the 13 plaintiffs took university entrance exams between 2011 and 2018, but were not accepted. During the course of the case, it was discovered that two of the students would have passed the first exam if the results had not been manipulated.

The institution later accepted 48 female students who should have been admitted sooner for 2017 and 2018 if the exam results had not been falsified.

After similar manipulation was initially exposed at Tokyo Medical University in 2018, the education ministry conducted a nationwide assessment and discovered that nine medical schools had rigged their entrance examinations to favor male applicants and families of alumni.

Four years ago, the government initiated an investigation after another school, Tokyo Medical University, acknowledged to routinely lowering the scores of female applicants in order to maintain a female student body of roughly 30%.

Female applicants were discriminated against at four of the 81 schools investigated, according to the government investigation, with media reports at the time claiming that admissions staff expected women would leave medicine or work less hours after they married and had children.

There were 1,197 applicants, none of whom were among the 13 plaintiffs in Thursday's proceedings.

St. Marianna University of Medicine denied the claims, but Tokyo Medical School, Juntendo University, and Kitasato University admitted the problem and apologized.