Search the Community

Musashino University is a comprehensive educational institute with a rich history and wealth of traditions. The school was established in 1924 by Dr. Junjiro Takakusu, a Buddhist scholar and winner of the Order of Culture, as a Buddhist school connected to the Jodo Shinshu Honganji denomination. In 2004, all departments became coeducational to nurture enlightened students, exhibit strength of character, carve out bright futures, and contribute to society at large. Musashino University is steeped in history and tradition and will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2024. At the center of the school's tradition is the spirit of Buddhism. Musashino University has continued to improve the quality of its education and the results of its research throughout its long history. Under its new Brand Statement of "Creating Peace & Happiness for the World," the school continues its efforts to become a highly sought-after place of learning in the global environment and create innovation in education and research. "Global Vision 100" is one initiative aimed at achieving those goals. It involves a multifaceted approach to globalizing the university: creating an international education expanding the number of students who study abroad the number of international students accepted by the university, enhancing the research environment and strengthening the organizational framework and governance To promote the increase in students from overseas accepted by Musashino University, the school has implemented Japanese-language education and training programs specifically for international students. The goal is to increase the number of international students to 15% of all enrolled students by 2024. Other steps the university has taken to achieve real globalization include the introduction of a dual-degree system in conjunction with universities in English-speaking countries in Europe and North America and the establishment of a Confucius Institute under a program sponsored by the Chinese government We have experienced phenomenal development for the last decade. To nurture students to adapt to our sophisticated society, in 1998, we established the Faculty of Contemporary Society (now the Faculty of Political Science and Economics), complementing our existing Faculty of Literature. Since then, we have established several additional faculties in succession - the Faculty of Human Studies, the Faculty of Pharmacy, the Faculty of Nursing, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Global Communication, and the Correspondence Course Department - as well as seven new graduate programs - Languages and Culture, Human Society, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Political Science and Economics, Nursing Science, Environmental Science, and Anthropology (via correspondence courses) - taking great strides toward our objective of becoming a top-class integrated university. All of our faculties and graduate courses gather spirited professors who are highly active in their fields. This enables each faculty and graduates to respond to the rapid pace of globalization and other political, economic, and social changes. These are just some of the ways we at Musashino University have tried to respond in advance to the changing times by expanding and developing our educational offerings. However, to press on even further, we will be opening a new campus in Ariake, Rinkai-Fukutoshin, in 2012. Our Ariake campus will be situated along the Tokyo Bay waterfront, providing an enticing educational environment in a seaside locale. In addition to our verdant Musashino campus, the addition of the Ariake campus with its access to Tokyo's urban infrastructure presents our university with unlimited possibilities for the future. At Musashino University, our goal is to keep contributing both to the present and the future. Musashino University provides its original scholarship system to carry out its mission of encouraging studies and research while sending unique and talented individuals out into society. Our fully-fledged economic support allows students to focus on their studies without worrying about other things from entering the university to graduation. View full university

Musashino Art University (MAU), located in Tokyo, marked the 80th anniversary of its foundation in 2009. MAU was founded as a private art school and was officially designated as a university in 1962. Currently, MAU is one of Japan's leading art institutes, with over 4,500 students and 2,000 correspondence students. To achieve this, the University is deeply mindful of the need to arm students with a combination of generalist and specialist skills and remain faithful to our founding spirit of providing art education that allows students to function with true freedom as human beings and producing artists of well-rounded erudition. Japanese tertiary education is currently undergoing a significant transformation, and many in the sector believe that total immersion in a specialist domain should be the defining characteristic of university education. However, this is not necessarily the MAU position, which aims to offer the best possible grounding in the formative arts. This is because we believe that when it comes to specializing in the realms of art and design at the undergraduate level, proper education in art and design can only be obtained through a well-balanced combination of liberal arts subjects, in which students study a wide range of disciplines that will help them to cultivate the all-round judgmental and critical faculties needed to major in their intended field of art or design. This includes subjects dealing in the fundamentals of art and design, in which they study in domains other than their majors and attend lectures and classes in other departments, the aim being to understand the place and foundations of their specialty from a more holistic art and design perspective and the departmental subjects by which students in each department pursue specialist capabilities specific to their realm of art or design. The liberal arts subjects are composed of four subject groups cultural studies subjects, subjects related to the culture of language, subjects related to physical culture, and subjects related to the culture of art and design. Students can select freely from these subjects provided their selection meets specific criteria and build the foundations for the specialist field they intend to pursue in the best form for their needs. Lectures and classes are compiled in a more individual manner than usual, for example, incorporating cross-genre perspectives or delving deeper into themes at each stage. Subjects dealing in the fundamentals of art and design aim to help all students identify and extend their latent abilities in art and design by allowing them to experience firsthand areas of art and design other than their specialties, and are scheduled from the first semester of the first year to the first semester of the second year. The departmental subjects offered by each department start with the theoretical foundations, methods of expression, and other essential knowledge indispensable to professionals and develop into more advanced professional programs. This organic linking of subject groups and step-by-step development is a significant feature of the curriculum at Musashino Art University. They are grounded in the University's long-held conviction that the foundations for excellence in the arts lie in nurturing well-rounded human beings of superlative education. View full university