Photo/Illutration The Tokyo metropolitan government building (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Quotas kept 284 female students from passing the entrance exams for public high schools in Tokyo, according to analysis released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education on July 13.

The published result said the students would have passed if admission was not limited by gender. 

Many co-educational public high schools in Tokyo have a quota for male or female students, unlike the rest of Japan. The education board in the capital is working to phase out such quotas.

In this spring’s exams, the board took measures requiring that schools must determine 10 percent of student enrollment by their scores and not by gender.

However, the findings show that many students were still affected by their gender.

The board examined 109 schools that have quotas out of all 168 full-time public high schools in Tokyo.

It listed the applicants this year in each school by their scores and compared them with those who passed the exams.

The result shows 284 female students in 23 schools and 15 male students in five schools could have passed their exams. The results in the remaining 81 schools were not affected.

The largest number was in Mukogaoka High School in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, where 30 more female students could have been enrolled.

The board also compared the minimum passing scores by gender in each school.

The biggest gap was in Nihonbashi High School in Sumida Ward and Matsubara High School in Setagaya Ward, where female test-takers scored 59 points higher than males.

The board said it would consider how to phase out the quotas in light of these findings but did not specify when they will be completely abolished.

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