Senshu University (専修大学, Senshū Daigaku), generally referred to as Senshu (専修) or Sen-Dai (専大), is a private university located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1880 as Senshu College (専修学校; Senshu Gakko), which was recognised as one of the Five Great Law Schools by four co-founders, it is one of the oldest universities in Japan.
The university has a total of about 20,000 students coming from the Greater Tokyo Area. Senshu is organised into seven undergraduates, five graduates, and one professional graduate school; and twelve research institutes. The university currently has partnerships with 35 universities and institutions in 19 countries. Some of the University's partners include: the University of Bristol (England), the University of Barcelona (Spain), Peking University (China), and the University of Oregon (United States).
Since its founding, Senshu University has sent out about 290,000 graduates, with alumni in diverse fields such as politics, business, culture, entertainment, sports, and mass media.
Senshu University alumni include the former Minister of Defence, eleven sitting Diet members, 195 professional athletes, and twenty four company chief executives. As of 2023, 70 Senshu alumni have participated in the Olympic Games and 9 alumni have won medals.
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History
The university was founded in September 1880, as Senshu College by four co-founders: Nagatane Soma, Tanetaro Megata, Inajjiro Taziri and Shigetada Komai.
In the late 19th century, the Meiji government encouraged students to study abroad to gain advanced Western knowledge. With the institution, they all have studied at universities in the United States such as Columbia University (Soma), Harvard University (Megata), Yale University (Soma, Taziri) and Rutgers University (Komai). In 1875, they founded the Japan Law Company in the United States and envisioned the establishment of a new educational institute. In 1879, they received support from Yukichi Fukuzawa and they established the Night Law School in Fukuzawa's Keio-Gijuku. In 1880, the Night Law School became independent of Keio-Gijuku and merged with two private schools to form Senshu College, which was established as an Anglo-American law school and economics school. At that time, there were only a few schools that could teach specialised law, and the University of Tokyo taught law in English and the Ministry of Justice Law School taught law in French. Meanwhile, Senshu was the first college where Japanese teachers taught specialised subjects in the Japanese language, and it was also the first college to establish a school of economics in Japan.After 1885, Senshu was moved its campus from Ginza to Kanda, and built the Black Gate (黒門 Kuromon), which was reconstructed in 2010 as the Kanda Campus Monument. In 1888, Senshu was recognised as one of the Five Great Law Schools. In 1918, the government enacted the University Establishment Ordinance and eight universities, which including Keio University and Waseda University were approved as a universities in 1920, and Senshu was also approved as a university in 1922. The Kanda campus is located in Kanda-Jinbōchō and formed a college town with Hosei University, Chuo University, Nihon University and Meiji University. After the World War II, Senshu established the Ikuta campus in Kanagawa Prefecture to cope with the increasing number of students. Today, Senshu has grown into a comprehensive university with 7 undergraduates, 5 graduates, 1 professional graduate school. In 2010, Senshu declared ‘Development of Social Intelligence’ as its vision for the 21st century.
Campuses and institutions
Kanda Campus (Main campus): 3–8 Kandajimbo-cho, Chiyoda, Tokyo 101-8425 The Kanda Campus is situated in Jimbocho, a college community in central Tokyo and near by the Imperial Palace and The National Diet Building. This urban campus consists of several buildings, including the newly established Law School.
Ikuta Campus: 2–1–1 Higashi-mita, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-8580 The Ikuta Campus is the largest and the most populous campus of Senshu University. The campus is located on a hill between Tama Hills and Ikuta Ryokuchi Park.
Satellite Campus: Atlas Tower Mukogaoka Yuen, 2nd floor 2130-2 Noborito, Tama-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 214-0014 This campus is used for open lectures.
Isehara General Ground: 163 Nishitomioka, Isehara, Kanagawa 259–1111 Facilities for each sports club, riding stables, student dormitories, etc.
Organization
Undergraduate faculties
School of Economics
Department of Economics
Department of Economics for Life and Social Environment
Department of International Economics
School of Law
Department of Law
Department of Politics
School of Business Administration
Department of Business Design
Department of Business Administration
School of Commerce
Department of Marketing
Department of Accounting
School of Letters
Department of Japanese Literature and Culture
Department of English
Department of Philosophy
Department of History
Department of Geography
Department of Liberal Arts and Journalism
School of Human Sciences
Department of Psychology
Department of Sociology
School of Network and Information
Graduate schools
Graduate School of Economics
Graduate School of Law
Graduate School of Humanities
Graduate School of Business Administration
Graduate School of Commerce
Professional schools
Law school
Notable graduates
Politicians
Tokuo Yamashita (Minister of Transport, Chief Cabinet Secretary, was Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare)
Yasukazu Hamada (Minister of Defense)
Hiroshi Hase (Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, professional wrestler (1986–2006))
Hideo Higashikokubaru (Governor of Miyazaki)
Art
Futabatei Shimei (author)
Tetsurō Araki (animation director)
Atsushi Kaneko (manga artist (Known for Bambi and Her Pink Gun, Soil))
Sports
Kento Sugiyama (baseball player)
Hiroki Kuroda (baseball player)
Yuya Hasegawa (baseball player)
Tetsuya Matsumoto (baseball player)
Hideko Hiranaka (medley swimmer)
Wataru Murata (rugby player and coach)
Ryo Adachi (football player and manager)
Jun Wada (football player)
Takuya Ito (football player)
Takumi Nagura (football player)
Kazuki Nagasawa (football player)
Teruhito Nakagawa (football player)
Tadaharu Ogawa (basketball player)
Takashi Sato (mixed martial artist)
Keito Yamakita (mixed martial artist)
Haruhisa Chiba (skier)
Sister schools
United States
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Susquehanna University
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
University of Oregon
Canada
University of Calgary
Mexico
Universidad Iberoamericana
United Kingdom
University of Bristol
Ireland
Trinity College Dublin
France
Lumière University Lyon 2
Germany
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Spain
University of Barcelona
Australia
University of Technology, Sydney
University of Wollongong
New Zealand
University of Waikato
South Korea
Dankook University
China
Shanghai University
Northwest University
Peking University
Taiwan
National Sun Yat-sen University
Mongolia
National University of Mongolia
Vietnam
National Economics University
Language training institutes
Institut de Touraine, France
Goethe-Institut Bremen, Germany
Yonsei University Korean Language Institute, South Korea
CIE Oxford, United Kingdom
Affiliated schools
The university is affiliated with the following schools and universities in Japan.
Ishinomaki Senshu University (Miyagi Prefecture)
Hokkaido College, Senshu University (Hokkaido)
Senshu University High School (Tokyo)
Senshu University Matsudo High School and Junior High School (Chiba Prefecture)
Senshu University Kitakami High School (Iwate Prefecture)
Senshu University Tamana High School (Kumamoto Prefecture)