History and Founding Spirit of Doshisha University

Joseph Hardy Neesima (1843－1890), the founder of Doshisha University, was inspired by Western ideas while learning the Western sciences, such as mathematics and navigation. He went to America at the age of 21 in spite of the national prohibition on doing so. Studying Western sciences and Christianity made Neesima convinced of the necessity of establishing an institution of higher learning that was based on the Christian principles and so he established Doshisha Eigakko (Doshisha Academy) in 1875 after returning to Japan. The Academy started out with two teachers and eight students. Then, due to his wide appeal across the country, Doshisha University was finally founded in 1912, 22 years after Neesima’s death.

Doshisha University, as we will celebrate its 133rd anniversary in November 2008, has grown today to be one of the most prominent private universities in Japan, with 11 Faculties, 31 Departments, the Center for Japanese Language and Culture and 13 Graduate Schools including two Professional Graduate Schools, and is home to over 26,000 students.

Ever loyal to the sprit of the founder, Doshisha has committed to nurturing “those who use their abilities as conscience dictates” and has always aspired to educate many capable young talents and send them out into the society, while actively promoting close interaction and cooperation among industry, government and academia.

Neesima’s educational ideals are encapsulated in the graven words on the monuments at the main gates both at the Imadegawa and Kyotanabe campuses, which read, “I earnestly desire that many young people filled with conscience will be raised and sent out by our school.“ What is envisioned here is an education which represents the Christian principles, liberalism and internationalism as its three pillars and whose spirit has been inherited and cherished as our unbroken tradition.

International Exchanges at Doshisha University

Today Doshisha University has exchange agreements with 65 universities in 25 countries throughout the world and regularly exchanges a host of students through its exchange programs. Opportunities thus given to study abroad and to mix with students from different countries greatly help Doshisha students to cultivate international understanding and acquire internationalized perspectives for their future.

In addition, the AKP (Associated Kyoto Program), sponsored by 15 liberal arts colleges across the United States, offers a unique Japanese studies program at Doshisha University and brings over 40 students to Kyoto every September. Meanwhile the University of Tübingen in Germany has founded its Japanese Language Center on campus with about 20 students participating each semester in spring and fall. Furthermore, Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation (SCTI), which was relocated to Doshisha in the summer of 2006, brought 30 students last spring. SCTI offers the five-month study program in Japan, starting in the middle of April and ending in the middle of September and bringing 30 undergraduate students of Stanford University every year. The first half of the program, between the middle of April and the beginning of July, consists of courses in a wide range of subjects such as Japanese technology, politics, economy, religion, and culture, lectured by faculty of Stanford University and other Japanese universities in the Kansai Area.

As well as exchange students, many privately financed international students are also studying at Doshisha University. The Center for Japanese Language and Culture is an educational institution where those students study the Japanese language intensively for a year as part of the preparation for entering an undergraduate or a graduate program at Doshisha University, or other universities and graduate schools in Japan.