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Kansai Christian School was established in 1970 as an English-language school serving the evangelical Christian missionary community in the Kansai region. Today, nearly 50 years after its founding, KCS continues to provide a Biblically-based 1st-12th grade education to students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Our campus, situated between flower fields and rice patties in Nara Prefecture’s Heguri Town, provides a peaceful setting for a Christ-centered and truly international community of learners. Kansai Christian School serves a unique role among learning institutions in Japan. While having a clear international flare, we also strive to remain connected to the local community as one of only a few Christian organizations in the area. Students travel to KCS from major metropolitan areas throughout the region including Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara, but many students also attend from the smaller towns and neighborhoods near the school. This creates a school community that has both an international and local flavor connecting the cultures of the world with that which is distinctly Japanese. A primary goal of our school is to remain an active member of the local community while also helping students recognize their international responsibilities and opportunities. The school has no exclusive denominational affiliations and seeks to rely on biblical foundations for the operation and educational goals of the school. We feel strongly it is our responsibility to work with parents and families to provide a quality education that instills Christian values in the next generation. While the school relies heavily on the US and international curriculum standards, the biblical view of life, which understands God's truth to be the standard of all truth, permeates every area of academic and social life at KCS. Our curriculum, based on American curriculum standards, is designed to prepare students for college and prepare them for Christian service. All students study math, science, English, and social studies. In addition, they also study Bible, Japanese, Music, Art, and P.E. High school students may choose from a full range of electives that include online courses from the University of Missouri. Elementary students also participate in art, drama, and music. All classes are taught from a Christian worldview. KCS utilizes the American school calendar (September-June). KCS is committed to helping students mature intellectually, socially, spiritually, and physically. The curriculum is designed to encourage all students to excel at their levels. More than 90% of our graduates have entered colleges and universities in the USA. A week of achievement testing is scheduled every spring for all students. Kansai Christian School, as a beacon of biblical Christian influence in the Japanese culture, is actively committed to our unique position of providing families with high-quality, comprehensive Christ-centered education. KCS aspires to be recognized as a member of our local community and a pillar of the Christian community in the Kansai region, leading with Biblical principles that result in: Students receiving vital opportunities for academic, extra-curricular, social, and spiritual growth that will equip them to impact the world for Christ. Staff, students, and parents exhibiting standards of excellence, engaging in Christ-centered service, and living as exemplary members of the community. Kansai Christian School exists to glorify God by providing an education that fosters spiritual, social, and intellectual maturity in each student. KCS recognizes that parents are ultimately responsible for the education of their children. Therefore, the school and staff function in cooperation with the Christian home. The biblical view of life, which understands God's truth to be the standard for all truth, is infused across all areas of the curriculum. The curriculum thus serves to reaffirm the biblical view of the home. The students at KCS can study under Christian instruction and example in a context of high academic standards. Within this framework, students can obtain a strong foundation from which they can fulfill their God-given callings and service to society. The property includes the following: a two-story multi-purpose building (housing a multi-purpose hall, a library, and a computer laboratory) a three-story administration/middle school/high school building, a two-story elementary school building, a storage building, and a playground. The school is located just east of Route 168 (the bypass) running between Ikoma City and Oji and a five-minute walk from the Kintetsu-Heguri train station. A detailed map is available in the Contact Us section. The school makes regular use of excellent public facilities, which are located just minutes away. Such facilities include an indoor heated swimming pool, soccer field, basketball courts, and tennis courts.KCS is a closed campus and requires all visitors to check in with the front office. KCS is a small but very active school! Students plan and participate in various events throughout the year including theater & music performances, sports, festivals, camping, and field trips. The Student Council plans many activities including game nights, dinners, and talent shows. Sports and other clubs available include basketball, futsal, chess, programming, and drama. Activities vary from year to year depending on the number of interested students! View full school

Kansai University of International Studies (KUIS) was first established as a two-year women's junior college in 1987. In 1998, we became a four-year college to add a new page to universities' history in this country. As befits the name of this institution, partnerships with 45 overseas universities across 12 countries and one region situated primarily in the Asian-Pacific region have been established. We are known as a university with a vital educational component and enjoy an excellent reputation for designing and developing educational programs and learning achievements attained. Five learning benchmarks and twelve intermediate targets have been prescribed to promote the integration of general-purpose skills with learning through specialized education. Our educational philosophy is that we seek to be a place of inspired learning where compassionate, highly creative students with the ability to take action can be cultivated from a global perspective. Specifically, we wish to produce autonomous individuals, individuals who can contribute to society, and spiritually rich global citizens. Based on the three attributes of students included in our educational philosophy as outlined above, we added to our goals both the acquisition of practical communication skills and the acquisition of problem-solving skills as general-purpose skills appropriate for graduates with bachelor's degrees in 2006. By the time a student graduates from our university, the person should have gained the ability to use and adequately harness these skills. These goals can be described as benchmarks representing the translation of our philosophy into action guidelines for students. The following points define the education we provide: First-year education is introduced to allow new students to make a smooth transition from high school to university and successfully adjust to university life. Excellent training and opportunities to gain field experience are introduced. All students undergo a program for gaining international experience known as a global study program through which they can acquire global perspectives. A process of reflection has been established whereby small-group seminars are offered for students each year -from freshman to senior- and students can take the time to review their growth and concerns each year based on an arrangement that ties them closely to advisors. The salient feature of our approach to education is the adoption of active learning. Rather than have instructors present one-sided lectures, ideas for educating students to engage in active learning through active participation in the learning process have been adopted. The approach to education referred to as service-learning provides students with opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. Getting students to engage in issues that are faced in the local community and overseas enables them to contribute to society in real life, appreciate the importance of specialized learning, and otherwise experience aspects of social contributions and practical scholarship. An example of this approach is a program that sends students to Cambodia to provide supplementary education in arithmetic to children. Also, internships at companies, schools, social welfare facilities, and elsewhere are proactively introduced. In recent years, we have focused on enhancing learning outcome assessments. We produced a protocol for our learning benchmarks, clarified targets in terms of the level students who take a given course should reach, and organized assessment perspectives and standards to permit them to be visually perceived. In addition to assessments corresponding to each faculty, department, and course, a shared protocol that expressly sets forth the perspectives and standards for grading reports and other items in courses is used. In this way, our education system is progressive, challenging, and designed to chart a higher education course in Asia. We urge you to choose a way to live actively and autonomously and to realize your growth as an ever-evolving individual in our current global era right here at KUIS. View full university

Kansai University has seen remarkable development over its many years. We celebrated our 130th anniversary in 2016. We have 13 faculties, 13 graduate schools, three professional graduate schools, and a preparatory course for international students. Over our long history, all those involved in building our institution have overcome various hardships to achieve such prestigious standing. While always keeping this in mind, we now need to make a courageous new start to explore an even brighter future and a new era of further reform that balances reality and ideals. To proudly pass on "the burning torch of intelligence" at our 150th, or even 200th, anniversary, we must gather all our collective wisdom to engineer a concrete reform plan and proceed boldly. These are the essential elements necessary for the university to pursue its mission as an essential organ of higher education. As part of our society, community, and indeed the world, for a more prosperous, brighter future. Providing a free and energetic environment for research is one of the critical elements required to invigorate our university. Therefore, we will strive to raise research standards university-wide through the creation of a strategic research-promotion structure. In this way, we will establish an intellectual and creative climate to initiate new research organizations aiming at scholarly breakthroughs and strengthen our existing research institutes. The know-how created through good research should be passed on to the next generation through concrete educational activities. To realize this, our team of teachers and staff members will work together to provide support to students to learn independently and autonomously. We will be sensitive to what is happening in the world and greater society by learning from a diverse pool of exemplar projects for improving university education, to foster students who can think, act and make a difference to the society they live in. We can assure the kind of sound academic environment where active research and learning profoundly rooted in society can be established through interaction with the world outside of the campus. Therefore, we will make every effort to involve ourselves in a range of activities that foster comprehensive exchanges with the society we serve, extending beyond the framework of business-academia collaborations. Our university will continue to make bold moves from a strategic perspective in a variety of ways. These include greater diversity among university staff and teachers, promotion of cross-cultural education, international education addressing global issues, such as the environment, energy, terrorism and conflicts regional studies, foreign-language education of English and other languages, and an increase in the number of students who study overseas. The Kansai University Library consists of the General Library on the Senriyama Campus and three other branches on the Takatsuki Campus, the Takatsuki Muse Campus, and the Sakai Campus. The total holdings of printed books and periodicals amount to approximately 2,280,000 volumes. Kansai University Library has a wide range of invaluable manuscripts, 21,000 electronic journal titles, and other materials of various media. The annual acquisition of books, periodicals, and other materials numbers approximately 26,000 volumes. By taking full advantage of state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Kansai University Information Technology Center (IT Center) provides broad supports for study and research and school affairs. To meet the needs of users, PCs are available along with a help desk at the Center. Besides, there are wireless access points set up on campus, allowing students to use their own devices and access the university network. KAISER, Kansai University's gigabit science information network, has been established to provide support for advanced research and education, and it is available at all five of the university's campuses (Senriyama, Takatsuki, Takatsuki Muse, Sakai, and Umeda). The university connects to SINET5, a science information network operated by the National Institute of Informatics (NII) as a Japanese academic backbone network. The network is used to collaborate with research institutes both inside and outside the university and provide high-level education through the use of multimedia tools. View full university

Our university motto is "the spirit of service in which one must live through the path of great value to society." Our forerunner Kansai Vocational School of Acupuncture and Massage, was founded in May 1957 by Takeo Takeda on the above motto. The school's goals were to cultivate excellent acupuncture and massage skills and develop these therapies in Osaka. In April 1985, the three-year Kansai College of Oriental Medicine was established, evolved into Kansai University of Oriental Medicine as a four-year university in April 2003. In April 2007, the name of our university was changed to Kansai University of Health Sciences. At the same time, the Graduate School of Kansai University of Health Sciences (Master's Course) was established. We established various affiliated medical institutions to provide clinical education in high-level integrative medicine and contribute to the local health care. The Attached Clinic provides specialized medical services based on Western medicine. The Attached Acupuncture and Moxibustion Clinic, the Attached Satellite Acupuncture and Moxibustion Clinic in Wakayama, and the Attached Judo Therapy Clinic offer medical care based on traditional Oriental medicine. These clinics also provide clinical practice, training, and research for students, graduate students, and medical professionals. Under the existing circumstances, we believe that it is essential to help students develop into medical personnel with the requisite skills for emergency medical care at the scene of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other disasters. Presently, Japanese society is rapidly aging at speed unprecedented in the world. Various diseases are seen in the elderly, and the metabolic syndrome and stress-related diseases such as depression that reflects modern society are rapidly increasing in number. Western medicine, which focuses on specialized and fractionalized medical treatment, is too analytical to cope with diseases' structural change. Therefore, we consider it essential to carry out our mission of producing medical professionals who will become leaders in the field of integrative medicine. The Mayo Clinic in the United States is a world-renowned medical institution and one we aim to emulate as an ideal health center. The Mayo Clinic aims to achieve "ultimate hospitality." Its logo and mark feature the three shields, representing the clinic's three primary objectives: the most extensive and central shield represents "care of patients," and the other two smaller shields represent medical research and education, respectively. The clinic's motto, "The needs of patients come first," is a century-old brand and announces the principle that guides all its medical practices. On the principle that "Medicine is a cooperative science, requiring collaboration and teamwork," the Mayo Clinic practices the ultimate world-class medicine. At our university, under our founding motto, "Living through the path of great value to society," we, too, stand firm by "the spirit of service" that puts the needs of patients first and commits us to produce medical researchers and practitioners who can observe the highest ethical standards and cooperate with their colleagues. View full university

Kansai Medical University (KMU) 's founding spirit is to cultivate human qualities through the ideals of Jijinshinkyo, namely "Benevolence, Compassion, and Empathy." Based on its founding spirit, KMU's educational philosophy seeks to prepare right, humanistic physicians who embrace the spirit of scientific inquiry, liberal arts, and a global outlook, all of which flourish in our academic tradition of freedom and autonomy self-motivated study. KMU promotes the following educational goals: Acquire skills in scientific observation, critical analysis, and expression. Master medical knowledge and skills that contribute to our society and the world. Foster physicians who understand their patients' pain and point of view. Cultivate in physicians the ability to solve problems independently and to seek new knowledge throughout their lives. We envision shared mid-range and long-term goals that will bring gradual progress. Our shared purpose is represented by the phrases "ACTION 2015," KMU's five-year action plan, and "JUMP 2020," a ten-year vision that will launch KMU toward new achievements. KMU aims to create a center that embraces an international viewpoint in medical and nursing education and research and offers high-quality medical care centered in northeastern Osaka and extends throughout the Kinki region. Renew the medical and nursing education systems and foster superior medical personnel Disseminate education and research results internationally Sponsor safe medical treatments that ensure patients' welfare and best outcome Maintain a workplace where one can realize the growth of the self and joy in one's work Renovate administrative management and stabilize fiduciary support In 1983 KMU developed the Medical Education Workshop for medical staff and the Educational Workshop for all teaching staff. In January 2009, KMU became the first in Japan to introduce the Directorship of Medical Education system. With the introduction of the Directorship of Medical Education, KMU implements a comprehensive student guidance system supported by a class advisor in each grade and a full-time staff of the Medical Education Center to prevent students from following behind. Also, in the 6th year, a preparation program for achieving 100% of the students to pass the national test is provided. The Central Research Center is a joint experiment facility for laboratories throughout KMU. The center has everything from general-purpose to advanced lab equipment, including imaging devices such as a confocal microscope and an electron microscope, flow cytometry devices such as four sets of analyzers and two cell sorters, and biochemistry devices such as an auto sequencer, a mass spectrometer, and a plate reader, as well as a P3-level experiment room. The defining characteristics of the center include the fact that any KMU researcher can make ready use of the latest sophisticated research equipment with the support of the center's three full-time technologists, and a representative for each department sits on the Central Research Center Use Committee in order to ensure fair and democratic use of the center. The Central Research Center occupies the fifth and sixth floors of the North Wing on the Hirakata Campus. It has recently undergone a significant expansion, including an all-new open access clinical research laboratory. In this regard, the Central Research Center continues to grow in importance as a core facility supporting a host of research activities at KMU. Historically, animal experiments have played a significant role in the development of modern-day physiology and medicine. Understanding life has advanced both at the molecular and cellular levels; therefore, the necessity is increasing in life sciences research to use laboratory animals for in vivo analyses. In regenerative medicine, immunology, neurophysiology, and stem cell biology, we have achieved substantial, epoch-making results at Kansai Medical University using various laboratory animals. Moreover, reflecting recent advances in genome studies and the increased daily use of gene-modified animals, such as transgenic and gene knockout mice, KMU works to ensure humane and scientifically appropriate environments for experimental animals. View full university

Kansai Gaidai University, through its extensive international network with 54 countries and regions and its unique educational programs, offers a style of learning which ushers in a new era of studying in a foreign language. Kansai Gaidai University was founded in 1945. Noboru and Takako Tanimoto founded Tanimoto English School in Higashi-Sumiyoshi Ward in Osaka City. With the scars of defeat in the war still glaringly obvious, the co-founders took the first step in foreign language education with a strong determination to eliminate war. Two founding principles were proudly set forth. One is to Nurturing individuals with a well-rounded education who can contribute to the international community. The second focuses on practical learning to meet the changing social needs and view the world from a fair-minded perspective. The founder's ideas and beliefs must always underlie the principle of behavior and be respected throughout the ages while responding to the changing times. Advanced technology has made international communications much faster and easier, making the world borderless and interdependent. Yet, many issues must be addressed and resolved on a global basis. Thus, the 21st century is the time when human intelligence will be truly tested. It is the role of educational organizations to bring this awareness to their students and allow them to make positive contributions in this endeavor. Kansai Gaidai University, a diverse institution of higher education, is firmly committed to playing this role in fostering educational opportunities to learn about the world. Collaborating with over 383 foreign universities in 54 countries and regions, Kansai Gaidai provides its students with many diversified educational programs to create the necessary foundation to pursue intellectual curiosity, self-awareness, and concern for others. Discover how Kansai Gaidai University can help you prepare to meet the challenges of the 21st century and how you, in turn, can share in the Kansai Gaidai international community and contribute to building bridges to a better future for us all. Taking part in extracurricular activities will be a good source of interaction with Japanese students. The clubs and circles at Kansai Gaidai warmly welcome the participation of international students. To name a few, athletically inclined students may join soccer, basketball, or cheerleading club. There is also a wide range of Japanese martial arts clubs such as Judo, Kendo, Karate, or Shorinji-Kempo. Surprisingly enough, some international students have even been able to speedily improve skills and earn advanced ranks within those activities' hierarchies. Students who wish to deepen their understanding of Japanese culture may find it very attractive to explore clubs such as tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arrangement, or Koto (the Japanese harp). An on-campus community volunteer club named "Himawari Club" may also interest you since the club organizes activities in which international students are exposed to local Japanese children/people in the university's vicinity. In many ways, clubs in Japan play a unique role in college life, for relationships established during membership could be instrumental to success after graduation. Therefore, some clubs may take membership seriously and insist on regular attendance. Since meetings or practice sessions may be held six times a week, it is not advisable to join more than one club. Circles, on the other hand, are different from "Clubs" in many ways. Circles are less strict and less hierarchical. Their rationale seems to be "Let's-get-together-to-have-fun." Information on clubs and circles is available at the Center for International Education. Students should be aware that clubs/circles are not usually active in February and March because of the Japanese Academic Calendar. View full university