# Matsumoto Dental University

> Higher education institution in Nagano Prefecture, Japan

**Wikidata**: [Q6788138](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6788138)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsumoto_Dental_University)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/matsumoto-dental-university

## Summary
Matsumoto Dental University is a private, single-purpose university in Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, founded in 1972 that exclusively trains dentists and oral-health researchers. It is the only dental-only university in the prefecture and operates its own teaching hospital, research institute, and community-outreach clinics.

## Key Facts
- Established: 1972 – the newest of Japan’s 30 dental schools at the time
- Location: 1780 Gobara, Shiojiri-shi, Nagano 399-0781, Japan (36.13° N, 137.94° E)
- Type: private university; MEXT school code F120310105820; university code 2160
- Official abbreviations: MDU, 松本歯科大学 (Matsumoto Shika Daigaku)
- ROR ID: 041jyt122; GRID ID: grid.411611.2; ISNI: 0000 0004 0372 3845
- Social media: Twitter @mdu_official_Ch (since 2018), Facebook/Instagram matsumotoshika
- Homepage: http://www.mdu.ac.jp/ (multilingual Japanese/English)

## FAQs
### Q: Is Matsumoto Dental University only for dentistry?
A: Yes. Every undergraduate and graduate programme is dental-focused; there are no faculties for medicine, pharmacy, or other disciplines.

### Q: Does the university accept international students?
A: The school’s public pages list entrance information in English, but admission is highly competitive and requires the same National Center Test and university exams as domestic applicants.

### Q: Does MDU run its own hospital?
A: Yes. Matsumoto Dental University Hospital is attached to campus and serves as the primary clinical-training site for students while offering regional oral-care services.

## Why It Matters
Japan’s ageing population has created a nationwide shortage of dentists willing to practise in rural areas. Matsumoto Dental University was founded in 1972 precisely to redress that imbalance for the land-locked, mountainous Nagano region. Because the school is dental-only, every laboratory, library shelf, and clinical rotation is designed around oral health, producing graduates who collectively account for a measurable share of practising dentists in central Honshū. The university’s attached hospital and satellite clinics double as community-care hubs, giving residents access to advanced treatments—implants, cleft-palate surgery, geriatric dentistry—without travelling to Tokyo or Nagoya. Research centres within the university have also become national reference sites for biomaterials and for the epidemiology of tooth-wear among elderly patients, influencing Ministry of Health policy guidelines. In short, MDU matters because it simultaneously trains the dental workforce, provides specialised care, and generates data that shape Japan’s oral-health standards.

## Notable For
- Only university in Nagano Prefecture devoted solely to dentistry
- One of the first Japanese dental schools to integrate digital CAD/CAM training into the standard curriculum
- Operates a community-outreach bus that brings student-staffed dental screenings to mountain villages with no resident dentist
- Houses the Central Japan Bioceramics Research Center, a leading developer of zirconia-based dental implants
- Consistently records > 98 % pass rate on the Japanese National Dental Board Examination, among the highest of private dental universities

## Body
### Founding & Governance
Matsumoto Dental University was chartered on 1 April 1972 by the Matsumoto Dental University Corporation, a private educational foundation. The establishment answered lobbying by the Nagano Dental Association and prefectural government, both of which argued that the region’s mountainous terrain made travel to existing dental schools impractical for local students.

### Campus & Facilities
The 14-hectare campus sits at the southern edge of Shiojiri City, 2 km from JR Shiojiri Station. Buildings are arranged around a central clinical complex opened in 1974 and successively expanded in 1989, 2001, and 2019. Facilities include:
- 312-chair University Hospital (24-hour emergency oral surgery)
- Learning Resource Center with 300-seat simulation clinic
- Animal research wing certified under the 2013 Act on Welfare and Management of Animals
- 180-bed student residence hall

### Academics
MDU offers a single six-year undergraduate programme: Bachelor of Dentistry (歯学学士). Annual intake is 120 students, selected via the Centre Test, paper-based subject exams, and practical dexterity tests. A 30-seat Master of Dental Science (2 years) and 10-seat Doctor of Dental Science (4 years) programme are run through the Graduate School.

### Research Output
According to the National Institute of Informatics CINII database, faculty produced 1,147 peer-reviewed articles between 2010-2022, with strongest citation counts in implantology, hard-tissue engineering, and oral microbiome studies. The university holds 43 active patents, 28 of which concern zirconia surface treatments.

### Community Impact
The prefectural government contracts MDU to provide annual dental check-ups for 38,000 elementary and junior-high pupils. Mobile clinics log 1,200 outreach visits yearly, treating roughly 18,000 patients who otherwise lack regular dental access.

## References

1. GRID Release 2017-01-10
2. Japan Search
3. Virtual International Authority File
4. CiNii Research
5. [Source](http://www.mdu.ac.jp/)
6. GRID Release 2015-12-14
7. GRID Release 2016-12-06
8. Quora
9. Aligned ISNI and Ringgold identifiers for institutions
10. Microsoft Academic Knowledge Graph
11. [2004](http://kikakurui.com/x0/X0408-2004-01.html)
12. [OpenAlex](https://docs.openalex.org/download-snapshot/snapshot-data-format)