Keio University

Keio University (慶應義塾大学), abbreviated as Keio (慶應) or Keidai (慶大), is a private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.

It is the oldest institute of western higher education in Japan. Its founder, Fukuzawa Yukichi, originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo.

The university has eleven campuses, primarily in Tokyo and Kanagawa. It has ten undergraduate faculties: Letters, Economics, Law, Business and Commerce, Medicine, Science and Technology, Policy Management, Environment and Information Studies, Nursing and Medical Care, and Pharmacy. There are fourteen graduate schools (listed below) and both on- and off-campus research institutes and facilities.

The university is one of the members of the Top Global University Project (Top Type), funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Keio University is also one of the member universities of RU11 and APRU, and it is one of only two Japanese universities (alongside the University of Tokyo) to be a member of the World Economic Forum's Global University Leaders Forum.

Its list of alumni and faculty includes three former prime ministers, two astronauts, six international honorary members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Wolf Prize winner. Keio University also produced the largest number of CEOs of companies listed in the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange and ranks 53rd (in the world) in top 100 Global Executives, according to Times Higher Education's "Alma Master Index 2017".

Overview

Keio traces its history to 1858 when Fukuzawa Yukichi, who had studied the Western educational system at Brown University in the United States, started to teach Dutch while he was a guest of the Okudaira family. In 1868 he changed the name of the school to Keio Gijuku and devoted all his time to education. While Keio's initial identity was that of a private school of Western studies, it expanded and established its first university faculty in 1890, and became known as a leading institute in Japanese higher education. It was the first Japanese university to reach its 150th anniversary, celebrating this anniversary in 2008.

Keio has leading research centers. It has approximately 30 Research Centers located on its five main campuses and at other facilities for advanced research in Japan. Keio University Research Institute at SFC (KRIS) has joined the MIT and the French INRIA in hosting the international W3C.

Mission

In his speech at an alumni gathering on November 1, 1896, Fukuzawa stated the mission of Keio as follows:

Keio Gijuku shouldn't be satisfied with being just one educational institution.

Its mission is expected to be a model of the nobility of intelligence and virtue,

to make clear how it can be applied to its family, society, and nation,

and to take an actual action of this statement.

It expects all students being leaders in society by the practice of this mission.

Those sentences were given to students as his will, and considered as the simple expression of Keio's actual mission.

Japanese modern education system contributions

Keio is known for being the first institution to introduce many modern education practices in Japan:

Dokuritsu Jison

Keio put "Independence and self-respect (独立自尊)" as a foundation of its education. This is meant to be physically and mentally independent, and respect yourself for keeping your virtue. Independence and self-respect are also regarded as Fukuzawa's nature and essence of his education.

Hangaku Hankyo

Learning half and teaching half (半学半教) is the other unique culture at Keio. During the late Edo period and the early Meiji period, several private prep schools often used students as assistant teachers and it was called "Learning half and teaching half". Keio also had initially used this system. In the early period of such schools of Western studies, there had been many things to learn not only for students but also professors themselves. Hence there had been occasions when students who had learned in advance had taught other students and even professors. After the proper legal systems for education had been set up, those situations disappeared. However, Fukuzawa thought the essence of academia was and is a continuous learning process, and that more knowledge provided more learning opportunities. Keio respects his thought and established the rule "Rules in Keio Gijuku (慶應義塾社中之約束)", which states that there shouldn't be any hierarchy between teachers and learners, and that all of the people in Keio Gijuku are in the same company. For this reason, there is still a culture at Keio that all professors and lecturers are officially called with the honorific of "Kun" but never "Teacher" or "Professor".

Shachu no Kyoryoku

Collaboration in a company (社中の協力) is also a uniqueness of Keio. Fukuzawa stated in 1879 that the Keio's success today is because of the collaboration in its company, and "Collaboration in a company" originally came from this article. People in Keio often think that all of the people related to Keio (e.g. professors, students, alumni and their family members) are the part of their company, thus they should try to help each other like brothers and sisters. This culture has been often seen especially in the alumni organization called Mita-Kai.

History

Keio University (慶應義塾大学) was established in 1858 as a School of Western studies located in one of the mansion houses in Tsukiji by the founder Fukuzawa Yukichi. Its root is considered as the Han school for Kokugaku studies named Shinshu Kan established in 1796. Keio changed its name to "Keio Gijuku" in 1868, which came from the era name "Keio" and "Gijuku" as the translation of Private school. It moved to the current location in 1871, established the Medical school in 1873, and the official university department with Economics, Law and Literacy study in 1890.

Some other notable events in Keio's history:

Presidents

Since the president system was established in 1881, Keio has had 20 presidents.

Student body

In 2021, there are 33,469 students in Keio University, with 28,667 undergraduate students and 4,802 graduate students. Although two-thirds of the student body are males, this ratio highly depends on the major (56% of students are female in the Faculty of Letters, for instance. On the other hand, in the School of Medicine, three-quarters of students are men.).

There are 1,908 international students in May 1, 2021, with 874 undergraduate students (3.1% of total undergraduate students (=28,667) ), 861 graduate students (18.0% of total graduate students (=4,802) ) and 173 other students. China is the country which provides the most international students with 1,016, followed by South Korea (436), France (66), Taiwan (51), the United States (36), Indonesia (34), and Germany (29).

Societies

In Japanese universities, there are student societies called "circles". Although the exact number is not clear, there are over 410 circles in Keio.

Festivals

Keio holds school festivals every year on each campus. The main festival is called "Mita Sai" and is usually held on Mita campus in late November. Mita Sai includes various academic and recreational activities and also serves as a research workshop for students on Mita campus. Approximately 200,000 people visit Mita Sai every year.

Athletics

Edward Bramwell Clarke and Tanaka Ginnosuke first introduced Rugby union to Japanese students at Keio University. The game had been played in the treaty ports of Yokohama and Kobe before that, but not between Japanese teams.

The interest of Keio's students in baseball stretches back to the early years of the 20th century. In 1913, an American touring team of players from the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox played an exhibition game against the Keio team. In a 1932 exhibition game, the Keio team beat the University of Michigan team, which was then touring Japan. Keio's baseball team plays in the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League (six prominent universities in the Tokyo area).

Association football

Keio University's association football (soccer) team is the most successful team in the history of the Emperor's Cup, although their last triumph was in 1956. They have won nine times, a number no professional team has ever achieved in the tournament.

Kei-So rivalry

Traditionally, there has been a strong rivalry between Keio and Waseda University. There are annually many matches between the two universities in several sports, such as baseball, rowing and rugby. These games are called "Kei–So Sen (慶早戦)", or more generally "So–Kei Sen (早慶戦)".

The Kei-So baseball rivalry, which dates back more than a century, is especially famous because of its importance in Japanese baseball history. The most famous Kei-So baseball game, which was played on October 16, 1943, was made into a movie titled "The Last Game – the Final So-Kei Sen -" in 2008.

There are two Kei-So baseball games every year, and they are usually broadcast by NHK. There is no lecture on all campuses in Keio on the game day because of the students who want to watch this match. Kei-So baseball games were even visited by Japanese emperors in 1929, 1950 and 1994.

Keio University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. Times Higher Education estimates that Keio is 351–400th place in general academic rankings among world universities.

Scandals

In October 2016, six male students from Keio Advertisement Society, a long-standing student club famous for its organisation of the Miss Keio pageant contest, were investigated for gang rape during a club activity. An out-of-court settlement was reached and the students were not prosecuted. In May 2018, another three students were arrested for sexual assaults.

In March 2017, a student tennis club was disbanded after a student died of alcohol poisoning during a club activity. Two other Keio students had died due to over-drinking in 2012 and 2013.

In June 2017, the school's election committee unconventionally selected Haseyama Akira, a legal history professor who only won second place at the general election amongst teachers and staffs, to be the school's new president, breaking a 50-year convention.

In late 2019, both the American football team and the cheerleading club suspended club activities for "inappropriate behaviours".

In January 2020, it was reported that a former member of the school president's secretarial staff had installed camera in a female toilet stall on Mita campus, filming over a thousand videos over 3 months.

Academic rankings

Keio ranks 53rd in the world in the Times Higher Education's Alma Mater Index. It ranks 34th globally in the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) and 3rd in Asia. Keio is ranked at 58th of the Reuters Top 100 innovative universities worldwide. British Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) company estimates that Keio is ranked the 192nd in QS World University Rankings 2017/18. It is ranked the 45th in QS World University Ranking 2017/18 for Graduate Employability Ranking. In the Asian University Ranking (2015), Quacquarelli Symonds also ranked Keio as 37th in Asia. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (2015), which is compiled by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ranks Keio 151-175 in the world and 37 in Asia. Keio, with Waseda University, is one of the prominent private universities within Japan.The difficulty level of entrance exams at Keio University is one of the highest among private universities in Japan.

Research performance

According to Thomson Reuters, Keio is the 10th best research university in Japan, and it is the only private university within Top 15. In addition, Weekly Diamond reported that Keio has the 8th highest research standard in Japan in terms of research fundings per researchers in COE Program, and it is also the only private university within Top 10. The Asahi Shimbun summarized the number of academic papers in Japanese major legal journals by university, and Keio was ranked 2nd during 2005–2009. Accordingly, Keio is a prominent research university within Japan.

In economics, according to The Asahi Shimbun, Keio's been ranked 7th in Japan in the economic research ranking during 2005–2009. More recently, Repec in January 2011 ranked Keio's Economic department as Japan's 6th best economic research university. Keio has provided 3 presidents of Japanese Economic Association in its 42-year history, and this number is 5th largest.

In addition, Nikkei Shimbun on 2004/2/16 surveyed about the research standards in Engineering studies based on Thomson Reuters, Grants in Aid for Scientific Research and questionnaires to heads of 93 leading Japanese Research Centers, and Keio was placed 8th (research planning ability 4th/informative ability of research outcome 3rd) in this ranking.

Business

Keio ranks second in Japan, for the number of alumni holding CEO positions in Fortune Global 500 companies, according to Mines ParisTech: Professional Ranking of World Universities. Keio is also ranked 1st in Japan for the number of alumni generally holding executive positions (when positions like COO, CFO, CIO etc. are included along with the CEO position) in listed companies of Japan, and this number per student (probability of becoming an executive) is also top.

Keio Business School is Japan's first business school and one of four Japanese schools holding The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. Keio was ranked No. 1 in Japan by Nikkei Shimbun. Eduniversal also ranked Keio as top in Japan (75th in the world). In Eduniversal Keio is one of only 3 Japanese schools categorized in "Universal Business schools with major international influence". In 2012, the Keio Business School became founding member of the university alliance Council on Business & Society that consists of Tuck School of Business from USA, University of Mannheim Business School from Germany, ESSEC Business School from France, Fudan University from China, Fundação Getúlio Vargas from Brazil and Keio Business School.

According to the Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings and the PRESIDENT's article on 16 October 2006, graduates from Keio University have the 3rd best employment rate in 400 major companies, and the alumni's average salary is the 3rd best in Japan.

Accounting

As an extension of Keio's strong business focus, for over 30 years, Keio graduates have been ranked first in Japan in the number of successful national CPA exam applicants.

Medicine

Keio has been influential in Japanese medical societies as well. In fact, there have been 4 presidents of Japan Medical Association related to this university (2 Alumni and 2 professors). This number is the 2nd largest among Japanese medical schools. Keio is one of 2 Japanese universities which provided a president of World Medical Association.

Law

Keio's law faculty is typically ranked among the best in all of Japan along with the University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto, Chuo University, and Hitotsubashi University. In 2010 and 2015, Keio University Law School ranked highest among all Japanese universities for Bar Exam passage rate. Furthermore, the number of Members of Parliament who graduated Keio has been 3rd in Japan.

Popularity and selectivity

Keio is a popular university in Japan, often considered one of Japan's top two private universities alongside their rival, Waseda University. The number of applicants per place was 11.7 (48260/4098) in 2011 undergraduate admissions. Its entrance difficulty is usually considered as top with Waseda among 730 private universities.

Nikkei BP has been publishing a ranking system called "Brand rankings of Japanese universities" every year, composed by the various indications related to the power of brand, in which Keio was top in 2014, and ranked second in 2015 and 2016 in Greater Tokyo Area. Webometrics (2008) also ranks Keio University as 3rd in Japan, 11th in Asia, and 208th in the world for quantity and quality of web presence and link visibility.

In a unique ranking, TBS ranked Japanese universities by the questionnaire of "Which university student do you want to have as your boyfriend?" to 300 girls in Shibuya, and Keio was ranked 1st in this ranking.

Finance

According to Keio's financial report, there was operating revenue of 197 billion yen in 2010. The top three largest incomes were from "tuition and fees", "medical care" and "capital gain", with 49 billion yen, 48 billion yen and 21 billion yen respectively. The amount of endowments in 2010 was about 5 billion yen. Keio is known as having one of the largest financial endowments of any Japanese university.

On the other hand, the top 3 largest expenses in 2010 were "Compensation and benefits", "Education & Research" and "Investment", with 65 billion yen, 52 billion yen and 33 billion yen respectively. The total asset value in 2010 was about 364 billion yen with increase of 5 billion yen. In addition, the total amount of assets under management was approximately 109 billion yen in 2010, composed by mainly cash, deposit with banks and marketable securities.

Tuition fees

The university tuition fee system in Japan is different from other countries and very complicated. In most Japanese universities, more payments are required in the first year, such as "entrance fees", and less in subsequent years. There are several types of fees (some of which must be paid only once and some of which must be paid once or twice every year) and so-called "course fee" is officially only one of those fees.

In Keio University, tuition fees vary and depend on the course. Social Science & Humanity studies have the lowest fees at approximately 1,110,000 yen per year, and School of Medicine is the most expensive fees at about 3,610,000 yen per year. The tuition fees for the various graduate schools are much less than those for undergraduate studies, e.g. 690,000 yen per year for Social Science & Humanities and 1,313,000 yen per year for School of Medicine.

Although it is acceptable to pay twice with half in spring and half in autumn, the "entrance fee" must be paid before enrollment. The entrance fee for undergraduate study is 200,000 yen and the one for graduate study is 310,000 yen.

Scholarship/loan

Many students receive additional financial support. For example, in 2008, there were 9,764 students (about 30% of all students) who used either scholarships or loans. Additionally, Keio funds over 3,000 students who receive, on average, scholarships of 300,000 yen.

Faculties

Keio has ten undergraduate faculties, which cover a wide range of academic fields, with each operating independently and offering broad educational and research activities. The faculties, with planned annual number of enrolled first-year students in parentheses, are:

Graduate schools

In addition to the ten undergraduate faculties listed above, Keio has fourteen graduate schools. Many professors are associated with both an undergraduate faculty and a graduate school.

Media centers

Keio's Media Centers, with combined holdings of over 4.58 million books and publications, are one of the largest academic information storehouses in the country.

Affiliated schools

Elementary education

Secondary education

Language education

Others

Hospital

Keio University Hospital is one of the largest and most well-known general hospitals in Japan, the number of surgeries for carcinoma uteri in 2007 was top and the one for lung cancer was third among all university hospitals. and is also a famous teaching hospital. The number of trainee doctors who selected Keio as their first choice training hospital was 30 (33rd) among all Japanese teaching hospitals in 2010. Established in 1920, it has over 1,000 beds, a leading laboratory, and research and medical information divisions.

Alumni and professors

Some of the prominent Keio alumni include: Japanese Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi (2001–2006), Ryutaro Hashimoto (1996–1998), and Tsuyoshi Inukai (1931–1932). Dozens of other alumni have been cabinet members and governors in the post-war period. Its alumni include 230 CEOs of major companies and 97 CEOs of foreign affiliated companies (both highest in Japan). Keio has over 320,000 alumni in 866 alumni associations.

Academia

Dozens of alumni and professors have been elected as academy members or been in important positions. He is thought as one of the Nobel Prize candidates in Physics in terms of the achievement of plastic optical fiber.(Sci. and Tech)

Gutenberg Bible

The only copy held outside Europe or North America is a first volume facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible (Hubay 45) at Keio University. Purchased by the university in 1996, from Maruzen booksellers who originally purchased the copy at auction in 1987 for US$5.4 million.

The Humanities Media Interface Project (HUMI) at Keio University is known for its high-quality digital images of Gutenberg Bibles and other rare books. Under the direction of Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, the HUMI team has made digital reproductions of eleven sets of the bible in nine institutions, including in 2000, both full-text facsimiles held in the collection of the British Library.
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