Nagasaki University was established in 1949 by incorporating several national institutions, namely, Nagasaki Medical College (including College Hospital and College of Pharmaceutical Sciences), Nagasaki College of Economics, Nagasaki Normal School, Nagasaki Youth Normal School and Nagasaki High School. The new main campus (Bunkyo Campus) was formerly a plant site of Mitsubishi Arms Factory (Ohashi Plant).
Nagasaki Medical College The oldest of the predecessors was Nagasaki Medical College. It was founded in November 1857 as by the branch office of
Tokugawa Shogunate. The first professor was
J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, and the institute was one of the first western-style (not
Kampō) medical schools in Japan. In 1861 the hospital was founded, and after
Meiji Restoration the school became a public (prefectural, later national) medical school. It was developed into Since 1946, researchers at NUITM have conducted fundamental and applied studies on
tropical and emerging diseases. This includes infectious disease epidemiology studies and vaccine and therapeutics development against infectious diseases. Researchers at NUITM have established several international research partnerships, including in Vietnam the Philippines, and Kenya, to study emerging and re-emerging diseases. The institute has research stations in Vietnam and Kenya, and of note, the field research conducted in Kenya has inspired a popular song, novel, and charity foundation, and has been featured in a film,
The Lion Standing in the Wind. As one of the world's leading institutes for training and research in tropical medicine and health care, it is stipulated as a Joint Usage/ Research Center under the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to spear-head academic research, and is a member of the Japan Infectious Disease Research Consortium that includes
Institute of Medical Science (Japan),
Osaka University and
Hokkaido University. With over one hundred graduate students enrolled, NUITM carries out an extensive capacity strengthening program in counterpart countries, and collaborates with a large network of institutions in Africa, South America, and Asia through MEXT,
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
Official Development Assistance (Japan) (ODA),
Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and the
WHO. The institute acts as a
WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Reference of Tropical and Emerging Viral Diseases and as the WHO's reference laboratories, providing confirmatory testing for
COVID-19. The institute also offers a Joint PhD Programme for Global Health as part of an academic partnership with the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the institute led the International Infectious Disease Consortium against COVID-19 (grant-in-aid emergency fund), an international research collaboration to develop countermeasures against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Researchers at NUITM, in collaboration with local public health institutes, initiated efforts in diagnosing SARS-CoV-2, including developing new diagnostic tools. Technology transfer and collaboration with Southeast Asian counterparts has shed light on how the disease spread in Japan and Southeast Asia.
Nagasaki College of Economics Another notable predecessor was Nagasaki College of Economics. It was founded in March 1905 as . It was the fourth national commercial college in Japan, after
Tokyo (1887),
Kobe (1902) and
Yamaguchi (February 1905), and aimed at educating students so that they could engage in business with China, Korea and Southeast Asia. In 1917 it added the Advanced Course for Trade (one-year course), and the building for the course was built in 1919 (Keirin Hall today). In 1944 it was renamed . On August 9, 1945 although Nagasaki underwent the atomic bombing, the college buildings were protected by Mt. Kompira. Its campus (Katafuchi Campus) has been used by the Faculty of Economics, Nagasaki University. == Undergraduate schools ==