SOPHIA UNIVERSITY

'' is a private university, with its main campus located in Yotsuya, an area of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in Japan. Sophia is in the highest level of Tokyo's top ranked private universities along with Waseda and Keio universities.

Contents

History

Campuses

Noted faculty members

Famous alumni

External links

History

Sophia University was officially established in 1913 as a special school by the Society of Jesus, and has since grown into a large, and well-reputed university, with over 10,000 undergraduate students and 1,000 graduate students across four campuses in the Tokyo area. It takes the name Sophia from the Greek ''sophos'' meaning "wise". The Japanese name, ''Jōchi daigaku'' literally means "University of Higher Wisdom".
The school was first recognized as a university in 1928, but it traces its history all the way back to the arrival of St. Francis Xavier to Japan in 1549. Xavier expressed his interest at the time in his hopes to found a university in the Japanese capital. A statue of Xavier still stands in front of the main building of the Ichigaya campus.

Campuses

Sophia's main campus, at Yotsuya, is an urban campus, consisting of roughly 25 large, modern buildings in the center of Tokyo. The majority of Sophia's 10,000 undergraduate students spend nearly all of their time here. The Faculties of Humanities, Law, Foreign Studies, Economics, Liberal Arts, and Science and Technology have their home here, as do the main library, cafeteria, gymnasium, chapel, bookstore, and offices.
In April 2006, the Faculty of Comparative Culture (FCC), which was located at the smaller Ichigaya campus, moved to the main Yotsuya campus. At the same time as the move, FCC changed its name to the Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA). Nearly all of Sophia's foreign exchange students study at FLA, as all the courses in the FLA are taught in English, with the exception of Japanese language courses.
The Tokyo office of the Council on International Educational Exchange, the student exchange organization, which oversees roughly half of the international students, is also based on the main Yotsuya Campus.
The Shakujii (Tokyo) campus houses the Faculty of Theology.
The Hadano campus in Kanagawa Prefecture is home to the Sophia Junior College, as well as a number of seminar halls and athletics complexes.

Noted faculty members

★ Sadako Ogata—former professor of political science, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Currently serving as President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

★ Kuniko Inoguchi—former professor of law, and Permanent Representative of Japan to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Famous alumni

★ Beni Arashiro, singer

★ Yoshitaka Asama, screenwriter and director of many films including ''Twilight Samurai''.

★ Phuoc Bui, guitarist

★ Agnes Chan, singer

★ Hillary Chan, Gourmet Chef/innovator; Cheesecake Factory

★ Kurara Chibana, Miss Japan 2006 and 1st Runner-up at Miss Universe 2006

★ Kensuke Ebata, Correspondent to Japan, ''Jane's Defence Weekly'' (foreign affairs, military & defense expert)

★ Vernon Grant, first American cartoonist to introduce manga concepts to English-language readers

★ Yū Hayami, actress, voice-actress in anime

★ Morihiro Hosokawa, 79th Prime Minister of Japan

★ Carrie Ann Inaba, American dancer, choreographer, actress, and singer

★ Hisashi Inoue, author

★ Crystal Kay, singer

★ Saori Kumi, author

★ Kōichi Mashimo, a well-known anime director

★ Hikaru Nishida, actress, Japanese drama

★ Yuriko Nishiyama, manga writer, including ''Harlem Beat''.

★ Seiko Noda, politician

★ Zomahoun Idossou Rufin, ''Gaijin tarento'' and philanthropist

★ Hideo Saito, composer

★ Miho Saito, entrepreneur

★ Peer Schneider, Vice President of Content Publishing at IGN Entertainment.

★ Shuzo Shiota, CEO and president of Polygon Pictures

★ Takayuki Tatsumi, American literature scholar, science-fiction reviewer, professor at Keio University

★ Robert Whiting, author on Japanese culture, including ''The Chrysanthemum and the Bat'' and ''You Gotta Have Wa'' about Japanese baseball.

★ Emyli, singer.

External links

★ Sophia University Homepage (日本語 / Japanese)

★ Sophia University Homepage (English / 英語)

★ Sophia University Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA) Homepage (English only)