Among the few extant structures built before this relocation is a gate called Akamon, which has become a widely recognised symbol of the university.During its initial two decades as a modern institution, UTokyo benefited from the contributions of European and American scholars.

In 1871, the Meiji Government made a decision about the direction of academic disciplines: engineering was to be learnt from the United Kingdom, mathematics, physics, and international law from France, while politics, economics, and medicine were to be guided by German expertise.

[21] This shift coincided with the return of UTokyo alumni who had completed their education in Europe, and these returnees began filling roles that had been predominantly held by foreign scholars.

Taking advantage of the widespread acceptance of such ideas, prime minister Takaaki Katō, an alumnus of UTokyo, extended suffrage to all males aged 25 and over in 1925, as promised in his manifesto.

[25][26] However, strong reactions against these liberal and socialist ideas also emerged at the university, notably from Shinkichi Uesugi, who mentored and greatly influenced three future prime ministers among his students at UTokyo: Nobusuke Kishi,[27] Eisaku Satō,[27] and Takeo Fukuda.

[38] In 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the American bases at Pearl Harbor and joined the World War II as an Axis power alongside Germany.

By late 1943, as Japan faced significant defeats in the Pacific theatre, a decision was made to enlist university students studying humanities, sending them to battlefields.

This zeitgeist of the era was prominently felt in Japan as well, symbolised by the 1960 Anpo protests, in which the death of a UTokyo student, Michiko Kamba, caused public outrage.

This operation involved more than 8,500 riot police officers confronting students who fought back with Molotov cocktails and marble stones taken from the auditorium's interior.

[48] Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, who was an alumnus of UTokyo himself, visited the site the day after the protesters in the auditorium were forcibly removed, and decided to cancel that year's admission process.

[56] As these numbers suggest, there is a widely shared concern that the university is falling behind its counterparts in the world, and in the future it may struggle to provide a suitable environment for quality education and world-class research.

This venture capital firm, affiliated with the university, supports entrepreneurship arising from UTokyo's research and development, aiming to drive innovation across society.

[64] In 2021, the newly elected President Teruo Fujii announced the UTokyo Compass, a guiding framework for the university during his tenure, focusing on diversity, dialogue, and creating a better future.

The Compass encourages dialogue throughout the university and society as a pivotal tool for understanding and questioning, fostering inclusivity, and tackling global challenges.

[65] The University of Tokyo's admission process [ja] (東大入試, todai nyushi) is regarded as the most selective in Japan and is almost synonymous with something that is difficult to achieve.

[67] Based on the scores from the Common Test, approximately three times the number of the final admission slots are invited to take the main examination in late February.

UTokyo is also known to be the only university that requires all applicants, including those who wish to study natural sciences, to take a non-multiple-choice Japanese and Chinese classics exam.

There is a tradition where the previous year's class (上クラ, uekura) invites the juniors to overnight orientation camps (オリ合宿, ori gasshuku) in early April.

[165] UTokyo alumni also hold chief executive positions in approximately a quarter of the Nikkei 225 companies (47 in 2014),[166] a fifth of the total seats in the National Diet (139 out of 713 in 2023),[167][168] more than half of the prefectual governorships (27 out of 47 in 2023),[169] and about two thirds of the justiceships at the Supreme Court of Japan (11 out of 15 in 2024).

[170] The university is also the alma mater of all four Japanese judges of the International Court of Justice: Kōtarō Tanaka, Shigeru Oda, Hisashi Owada and Yuji Iwasawa.

Nine Nobel-awarded scientists have earned degrees from UTokyo: six in physics (Leo Esaki, Masatoshi Koshiba, Shin'ichirō Tomonaga, Yoichiro Nambu, Takaaki Kajita and Syukuro Manabe), one in chemistry (Ei-ichi Negishi) and two in Physiology or Medicine (Yoshinori Ohsumi and Satoshi Ōmura).

Four architects educated at the Faculty of Engineering have received the Pritzker Architecture Prize: Kenzo Tange, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito and Fumihiko Maki.

Hiromasa Ezoe, as an educational psychology student at UTokyo in 1961, established Recruit Holdings, the largest human resources company in Japan, which also runs worldwide businesses including Indeed and Glassdoor.

[190] Numerous notable literary figures have attended the University of Tokyo, two of whom received the Nobel Prize in Literature: Yasunari Kawabata (Known for The Dancing Girl of Izu, Snow Country and The Old Capital) and Kenzaburo Oe (A Personal Matter, The Silent Cry and Death by Water).

Other notable UTokyo-educated writers include: Soseki Natsume (I Am a Cat, Botchan, Sanshiro and Kokoro), Ōgai Mori, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki, Naoya Shiga, Osamu Dazai, Yukio Mishima, Kobo Abe, Shōyō Tsubouchi, Shinichi Hoshi, Kōyō Ozaki, Jun Takami, Motojiro Kaijii, Shūichi Katō, Kunio Kishida, Hideo Kobayashi, Shigeharu Nakano, Hyakken Uchida, Makoto Oda, Tatsuo Hori, Mari Yonehara and Atsushi Nakajima.

[191] Other notable UTokyo-educated poets include Mokichi Saito, Nobutsuna Sasaki, Makoto Ōoka, Hōsai Ozaki, Saneatsu Mushanokōji and Tatsuji Miyoshi.

Isao Takahata co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki and directed animation films including Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

Koichi Sugiyama is known for composing the music for Dragon Quest, along with several other famous video games, anime, films, television shows, and pop songs.

Another communist sympathiser among UTokyo's alumni, Hotsumi Ozaki, played a central role in Soviet espionage with Richard Sorge and was executed for high treason in 1944.

[199] Kusuo Kitamura, later a senior bureaucrat at the Ministry of Labour, won a gold medal in the Men's 1500 metre freestyle swimming in the 1932 Summer Olympics.