Makoto-do Competitors

Located in central Tokyo, Waseda University was founded in 1882 by former prime minister and leading figure in Japan's modernization period, Shigenobu Okuma, as an independent counterweight to the national public institutions. Alumni include seven prime ministers, the current Foreign Affairs and Education Ministers, CEOs of leading companies (Nikon, TOTO, Toshiba, etc), journalists, novelists, movie directors, scientists and Kabuki actors, leaders in every sector of society, symbolizing the variety and diversity Waseda is so proud of.

The Educational Ideals of Sophia University Based on Christian principles of education, Sophia University attests to the four-hundred-year-old interest of the Jesuit Order in Japan. Its aim is to prepare men and women coming from different countries to recognize in the different cultural traditions of the world the fundamental unity of the human race and to work for the concrete achievement of that unity. The roots of the university go back to 1549, when St. Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, landed in Kagoshima with the hope of starting a Catholic university which would introduce Western culture to Japan. In 1908, nearly 360 years later, three members of the Society of Jesus－the German Father Joseph Dahlmann, the French Father Henri Boucher, and the English Father James Rockliff－came to Japan with the mission of fulfilling St. Francis Xavier’s aspiration. As a result of their efforts, Sophia University was established in 1913, when the Japanese Ministry of Education gave the Jesuits permission to found a new educational institution under the Japanese name of Jōchi Gakuin. Sixteen students enrolled in the first class. From this modest beginning Sophia University has grown to be one of the foremost of Japan's private universities with a student body of over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a teaching staff of more than one thousand. In the radition of the international character of Sophia’s founders, the faculty members represent twenty different nationalities; they are committed to conveying to the next generation through their scholarship and teaching both humankind's cultural and intellectual heritage and a concern for the problems facing the world today.

The history of Hosei University dates back to 1880 when Tokyo Hogakusha or The Tokyo School of Law was founded. Dr. Gustave Emile Boissonade of the University of Paris, who had been invited by the Japanese Government as a juridical advisor, assumed the post of Director in 1883. The School later became Hosei University, a private university in 1920 in accordance with the promulgation of the University Order permitting the establishment of private universities. At present Hosei University is a comprehensive university with 15 undergraduate faculties, 14 graduate schools, 1 institute, 2 professional schools and a School of Correspondence Education. With the founding principles as its starting point and in accordance with its declared mission and vision the University affirms its commitment to the following three fold mission for the medium long term: 1.To continue to respond to challenges and to create new traditions 2.To continue to help meet the demands of the 21st Century by educating individuals to become future leaders and by supporting cutting edge research 3.To continue to serve society by contributing education and research results for a sustainable global community.