A private university established in 1992, Josai International University is the offshoot of Josai University, founded in 1965 by Mikio Mizuta, who served seven terms after 1960 as national finance minister.
Based on his philosophy of "character building through learning", its provision is based around three pillars – global education in English and other languages, career development as preparation for the professions and community-business education creating awareness of both the community and the business environment.
It has three campuses. The Faculty of Tourism has been based since 2014, on a coastal site at Awa Kamogawa, with management and information sciences and media studies at Kioicho in central Tokyo. The majority of activities – including Japanese studies, international humanities, social work, pharmaceutical sciences and nursing – are located at the main campus in Togane, Chiba Prefecture, about 30 miles outside the capital.
It has around 6,000 students and, by Japanese standards, a strongly international flavour. Agreements with 175 institutions in 30 countries have led to more than 1,000 overseas students taking its one-year Japanese Culture programme each year.
It scored strongly on environment in the 2018 THE Japan University Rankings. The Togane campus in 2006 won an award from the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architects, while the new dormitory building for international students at Togane won a design award from the American Institute of Architects in 2018.
Alumni include Princess Ayako, who renounced her membership of Japan’s imperial house when she married a commoner in 2018. She took undergraduate and masters’ degrees in social work at Josai International and is now a research fellow at the university.
