Aug. 7 (UPI) -- A medical school in Japan admitted Tuesday it altered the results of entrance exams to limit the number of women admitted to the university.
Officials at the Tokyo Medical University offered an apology after an internal investigation revealed the manipulated results starting in 2006.
The probe found that the school subtracted points for female applicants while padding the scores for men. School officials did so out of the belief that women would discontinue their medical careers or take long periods of absence if they got married or had children, Kyodo News reported.
The practice was "nothing but discrimination against women," one of the lawyers involved in the investigation said.
The probe found that former Chairman Masahiko Usui and former President Mamoru Suzuki each accepted bribes from the parents of students whose scores had been increased.
University officials said the school would no longer manipulate entrance exam scores and offered to accept potential students whose original scores would have earned them a spot.
"We sincerely apologize for the serious wrongdoing involving entrance exams that has caused concern and trouble for many people and betrayed the public's trust," said Tetsuo Yukioka, the school's managing director, who said he was not involved in the altering of scores.
"I suspect that there was a lack of sensitivity to the rules of modern society, in which women should not be treated differently because of their gender," he added.
