TOKYO, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen women in Japan filed a suit of damages on Thursday against a Tokyo medical school for rigging entrance exams results in favor of male candidates, local media reported.
The plaintiffs took entrance examinations at Juntendo University between 2011 and 2018 but were rejected.
According to their lawyers, they are seeking a combined 42.7 million yen (3.7 million U.S. dollars) in damages after the university's scandal was revealed last year.
"Acceptance rates for female candidates were systematically lowered by Juntendo University," plaintiff attorney Arata Yamazaki said at a press conference. "(The case) is clearly discriminatory and should be strongly condemned."
Juntendo University admitted it manipulated its exams and accepted some female candidates who should have been admitted earlier for 2017 and 2018. However, none of the plaintiffs are among those additionally accepted applicants.
Of the 13 plaintiffs, 11 have also filed a damages suit against Tokyo Medical University which has admitted to rigging exam results to decrease female enrollment.
Tokyo Medical University admitted last August that it had been reducing female enrollment by deducting points from their entrance exams scores since at least 2006.
The scores of male candidates who had previously failed the exam had also been deducted.
The unfair treatment, intended to cultivate more male doctors since the university believed that their female counterparts tend to resign or take leave to get married or give birth, has sparked criticism across the country.
