Tokyo Medical University scandal just reaffirmed what many female doctors already knew: The bar was higher for them

The admissions scandal in which Tokyo Medical University admitted to manipulating females' entrance exams did not come as a surprise for many women doctors, but rather was verification of what they had suspected for a long time: Some medical universities set the bar higher for women.

That suspicion was backed up by the fact that the ratio of women who have passed the national medical exam consistently stayed at around 30 percent for nearly 20 years.

"We heard rumors a number of times that medical universities were placing caps on the number of female students," said Ruriko Tsushima, an obstetrician and the head of Tsushima Ruriko Women's Life Clinic Ginza in Tokyo. "Such practices should not be forgiven."