Otaru University of Commerce, as of 20 12, is the only single-subject university in social sciences among 86 national universities in Japan. Its predecessor was Otaru Higher Business School, which was the fifth government-run higher business school established in Meiji 43 (19 10). The four government-run higher business schools previously established are: 1) Tokyo Higher Business School (1887, now hitotsubashi university); 2) Kobe Higher Business School (1902, now Kobe University); 3) Yamaguchi Advanced Business School (1905, now Yamaguchi University); 4) Nagasaki Higher Business School (1905, now Nagasaki University).

In old Hokkaido, because there were only a few liberal arts institutions of higher learning at that time, students with literary aspirations also entered the school one after another, and second-class novelists and literary critics such as Kobayashi Takiji and Shinji Ito, who wrote The Crab Worker Boat, emerged. In Hokkaido, it is usually called "たるしょぅ", while in Otaru, it is usually called "Da".

Otaru University of Commerce is a single university with only 1 department and 4 disciplines of economics and management. 1 A small-scale university with about 500 students in the school year and just over 2,000 students in four school years has a long history in Japan, rich extracurricular activities and a very high employment rate.