Tokyo's major universities

Published on : 17/07/2025
by : S.R.

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Tokyo in the cultural age

As well as being a major business center and home to a quarter of Japan's population, Tokyo and its suburbs are home to a number of prestigious universities. Here's a look at the capital's huge cultural centers.

Gakushuin, the imperial university

Gakushuin is a university located in the Takadanobaba district, north of Shinjuku. This private university was founded in Kyoto in 1847 and moved to Tokyo in 1877. Since then, it has been the school of many members of the imperial family, including the current emperor and the crown prince.

It counts celebrities such as film director Hayao Miyazaki among its alumni.

See also: Studio Ghibli

Entrée de l'université Gakushuin — Entrance to Gakushuin University
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The university'shuge campus stretches along Mejiro Street. The main entrance opens onto a wooded alley, laden with sakura flowers and plum trees during the hanami season, while the other two entrances, to the south and west, offer the look of old American university buildings.

The campus also boasts an aquatic center, a baseball field and even an equestrian training center!

Address: 1 Chome-5-１ Mejiro, Toshima City, Tokyo 171-0031

Waseda University

Waseda is one of the country's most prestigious universities, often considered the second best after the indisputable University of Tokyo. It is particularly renowned in Japan for its literature department.

With over 50,000 students, it has numerous campuses, the three main ones of which are also located in the Takadanobaba student district . Haruki Murakimi is one of its former students.

Université de Waseda — Waseda University
Kure

The largest of Takadanobaba's three campuses, the Waseda campus, is a small city featuring a 3,000m2 Japanese garden, a museum devoted to oriental arts and the famous Ôkuma auditorium with its square tower.

Main campus address: 1 Chome-104 Totsukamachi, Shinjuku City, Tokyo 169-8050

The University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo, or as it's known in Japanese "Tôdai" - for "University of Tokyo" - is the largest university in Tokyo, Japan, and one of the best in the world. Its alumni include 17 former Japanese prime ministers, 7 Nobel Prize winners and 3 astronauts.

The university has three main campuses in Tokyo. The most famous is Hongô in the central district of Bunkyô, a literary district where many publishers are based.

Auditorium Yasuda — Yasuda Auditorium, University of Tokyo
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The campus is centered around the iconic Yasuda Auditorium, which has become part of the Japanese collective imagination as the gateway to the country's most prestigious university. It is featured, for example, in the novel Love Hina, where the hero desperately tries to enter the university.

Hongô campus address: 7 Chome-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 113-865

Rikkyô University

Rikkyô University was founded by an American missionary in 1883, and taught mainly in English until the 1920s. The school has a strong international orientation, and has created numerous connections with foreign universities around the world.

Located in Ikebukuro, it has been expanding since the 1990s with a second campus in Saitama prefecture.

Bâtiment principal de l'Université de Rikkyô — Rikkyô University main building
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The Ikebukuro campus is open to the public. Once inside, you're overwhelmed by the sensation of being somewhere in a provincial university in England, with omnipresent vegetation, right down to the ivy that grows on the university walls in the summer months.

Address: 3 Chome-34-1 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima City, Tokyo 171-8501

Keiô University

Keiô University was founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa in 1858, one of the thinkers behind the Meiji Restoration, whose portrait is featured on the 10,000 yen banknotes.

See also : The yen, Japan's currency

The school was one of the vectors of the archipelago's modernization and Westernization. In modern times, it was also marked by a rivalry with Waseda University, notably through the annual sporting clashes between the two institutions.

Campus Mita de l'Université Keiô — Keiô University Mita Campus
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The main campus is located in the Mita district, near Tokyo Tower. The entrance is hard to miss, with its neo-Gothic style and distinctive red brick walls.