Founded in 1971 in Nagakute, a community bordering on the city of Nagoya which attained town status in the same year, Aichi Medical University has grown in parallel with a host community which hosted the Expo 2005 World’s Fair and was raised to city status in 2012.
A graduate school of medicine was created in 1980, followed by the college of nursing in 2000 and a graduate school in the discipline in 2004. Operating with the motto of "Relief, Kindness, Comfort", the university aims to "train brilliant personnel who will shoulder the next century’s medical science and treatment within a productive education and research environment". Among its goals is that as many as possible of its graduating students should continue as researchers.
The university hospital was opened in 1974 and is recognised by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a "Special Function Hospital", delivering areas of advanced treatment.
It has delivered a number of areas of specialisation, with its location in a potential earthquake zone driving the creation in 2014 of a Disaster Medical Care Research Centre, intended not only to be ready for any eventuality in the district but also to innovate and develop broad expertise in the field.
Another centre focusses on neuropathological diseases and the science of aging, while the Interdisciplinary Pain Centre looks after around 7,000 patients every year. The university was commended, when last accredited by the Japan University Accreditation Association in 2013, for community involvement including the work of the pain centre and an agreement since 2012 with the cities of Nagakute and Kitanagoya to support districts which are short of doctors.
