Kyoto University of Foreign Studies

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Our university was initially established under the name Kyoto School of Foreign Languages in May of 1947. It was soon after World War Ⅱ when great demand had arisen for international understanding, which would lead to world peace. One of the urgent requirements to accomplish this goal was to nurture young Japanese men and women who could master foreign languages and understand the cultures, economies, and societies of the world.
To master a foreign language, however, is not an easy task for the Japanese. One reason for this sad truth lies in our linguistic system, which has a peculiar structure. Another reason is non-linguistic. We have exclusively developed our customs and traditions through our unique historical and geographical background. In other words, people in a country surrounded by the sea - like Japan - tend to have far more trouble learning a foreign language than those residing in countries bordering immediately on others. Thus, we believe that having linguistic talent is not good enough to overcome this handicap. We Japanese must have the incessant drive and go through thousands of repetitions to acquire foreign languages.
Our university's motto," PAX MUNDI PER LINGUAS" (World Peace through Languages), represents the founders' strong wish for achieving world peace. In addition to the Latin motto, the importance of "an indomitable spirit" has also been emphasized and valued as a primary basis for education and research. That is what the founders believed to be an essential quality for students of foreign languages to possess.
It is said that we live in the age of the "flat world". It is a world in which one can, if he/she so wishes, find all the vital information on the Internet, a telecommunication space equally and reasonably accessible at the ease of one click. So the formidable challenge that the university faculty face today, though perpetual it may seem, is in what ways and means instructors can inspire their students to develop sufficient motivation to study and academic enthusiasm to keep on studying. No doubt, the key to the problem is mostly in the hands of individual faculty members. At the same time, an equally helpful clue might be found in instructor-student collaboration in class based on mutual trust and students' daily campus life from which a spontaneous desire to learn arises from the students themselves.
For this, a proper emphasis needs to be placed on campus life because a university campus is a space where students are assisted in developing their professional identity in their way. Simultaneously, their two-or four-year campus life is the most critical period to solve problems in collaboration with each other.
In this globalizing world, one is expected to gain broad knowledge, not to mention a good command of a foreign language, with which world affairs can be seen and grasped from a broad perspective with the help of background information in history and culture, as well as with the ability to initiate a dialogue with peoples in distant lands to solve problems with them collaboratively.
To meet such needs, Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and Kyoto Junior College of Foreign Languages are proud to have so far produced a good number of outstanding graduates, following the ideals of Dr. and Mrs. Morita, the university founders, expressed in our school motto, "World Peace through Languages". To bring the twin institutions of Kyoto Gaidai further progress from now on, We hope to see our institutions transform into ones that are clearly and genuinely distinguishable from other Japanese universities and colleges, and also into ones in which students can have the first-hand experience of foreign countries and cultures through their daily campus life, while living in Japan, in order to learn about world languages and cultures.

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