OBJECTIVES: The Japan Council for Quality Health Care (JCQHC) is the only organization to accredit hospitals according to its evaluation standard. This study aims to explore the association between accreditation scores on medical ethics and the hospital characteristics. METHODS: As of March 2^nd, 2012, 2,437 hospitals were accredited by JCQHC. In those hospitals, 848 hospitals have been participating in the public disclosure. Out of 848, we extracted 454 hospitals accredited according to version 5.0 JCQHC evaluation standards from the JCQHC database and we evaluated their scoring about 2nd area of “Patients’ rights and system for securing patient safety”. The accreditation surveyors rated each item from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). RESULTS: The 454 hospitals included 41 university hospitals (UHs) and 411 general clinical training hospitals (GHs). The mean accreditation scores of 411 GHs and 41 UHs for item 2.1.2 “Policy on professional ethics is clearly indicated” were 3.46±0.518 and 3.41±0.499 (p=0.593). Those for item 2.1.3 “Policy on clinical ethics is clearly indicated” were also 3.22±0.478 and 3.37±0.488 (p=0.070). No statistically significant difference was found between GHs and UHs. Similarly, the mean scores of 411 GHs and 41 UHs for item 2.1.4 “Policy on clinical trial studies is clearly indicated” were 3.87±0.368 and 4.00±0.224 (p=0.027). Those for item 2.1.5 “Policy on clinical researches is clearly indicated” were 3.75±0.473 and 3.93±0.264 (p=0.018). Statistically significant differences were found between two hospital groups. Furthermore, statistically significant differences were found between the items of ethics and research respectively (p<0.001). Hence, the scores of items of patient-centered clinical ethics were lower, but those of items regarding research and trial studies. CONCLUSIONS: These findings led to the conclusion that health care professionals at university hospitals might lack a sense of ethics and be more interested in clinical research than general hospitals.