Dragon Zakura (2005) | University of Tokyo Red Gate — The Episode 8 Field Trip

Episode 8 of TBS’s 2005 ドラゴン桜 (Dragon Zakura), broadcast on 26 August 2005, makes the students’ goal physically concrete when Kenji Sakuragi takes them to the University of Tokyo. The filming-location record specifically identifies 東京大学赤門 (the University of Tokyo Red Gate) as one of the places used for that visit; other campus shots in the same sequence were filmed elsewhere, so this memory is deliberately limited to the verified Red Gate appearance. The Red Gate still stands at the Hongo campus, but access conditions have changed. The University of Tokyo says the gate has been closed since February 2021 because of seismic-safety concerns, and reinforcement work begun in November 2025 is scheduled to continue until around autumn 2027; during construction the gate is covered and its full appearance cannot be seen. The coordinate used here is the gate itself, not a generic campus centroid. Visitors should use currently open campus gates and follow university access rules. Verification: 全国ロケ地ガイド identifies the Red Gate as part of Sakuragi’s episode-8 University of Tokyo visit. The University of Tokyo’s current official notices confirm the gate’s closure, restoration work and Hongo-campus status.