Our institution, Shoken Gakuen, has to motto the four virtues of sober earnestness, piety, sincerity, and kindness, coupled with Confucian Jen or humanity. We aim to develop character education from the Confucian central virtues of humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. With this Jen, we get the total of all virtues as the founding philosophy. From the turn of the century through the Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei era, a significant change has been required of welfare education in line with developments in politics and the economy. The university is positive in offering intellectual and human resources to local communities, and in turn, in engaging with special lecturers and experts in their respective fields to conduct educational exchanges with the community. The university also offers a lifelong education as an open school for learning, free from the formalized sense of values. The university systematizes welfare, education, and health scientifically and theoretically while organizing a welfare and health center for research and counseling for people of all ages to be on visiting terms with the university. The university is also eager to cultivate a sense of international awareness through international exchanges with China and other Asian countries, Europe and America.
The university's founding philosophy is based on Jen or humanity, the central basis of Confucian moral philosophy. Our institution aims to cultivate humanity developed from the "five constant virtues" of humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. The university lays stress on its education designed to develop abilities and to strengthen character.
The university upholds Oyomei's (Wang Yang-ming's) doctrine of "the unity of knowledge and conduct": knowledge is not complete until it becomes conduct, and conduct is not complete unless it is knowledge itself at work. Therefore, our university aims to instill into the mind of the student the importance of promoting the practical utilization of knowledge and of cultivating rich human nature in the spirit of Confucianism.
