Doshisha University

Doshisha University (同志社大学 Dōshisha Daigaku; abbreviated to 同大 Dōdai) is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. It has 24,000 students on three campuses, in faculties of theology, letters, law, commerce, economics, policy, and engineering. It also has graduate programs in American studies and policy and management. Tuition and fees average ¥850,000 ($7,000) a year for liberal arts majors, and are higher for science and engineering majors.

Related Topics:
Kyoto - Japan

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It was founded by an ex-samurai named Niijima Jou(Joseph Hardy Neesima). Niijima snuck out of Japan in 1864, at the age of twenty-one, and found his way to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended Phillips Academy, Amherst College, and Andover Theological Seminary under the name Joseph Hardy Neeshima. After he returned to a Westernizing Japan in 1875, he founded the Doshisha Elite School (同志社英学校 Dōshisha Eigakkō) in Kyoto, which eventually incorporated a law school, normal school, and women's college.

Related Topics:
Samurai - Niijima Jou(Joseph Hardy Neesima) - Boston, Massachusetts - Phillips Academy - Amherst College - Andover Theological Seminary - 1875

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By 1920, Doshisha was a full-fledged university in the Anglo-American tradition. During World War II, its buildings were given Japanese names and its curriculum was stripped of its pro-Western elements, but the pre-war conditions were restored after Japan's surrender.

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Amherst College has maintained close ties with Doshisha since its founding. Amherst and Doshisha are considered sister schools and have had a long running student and faculty exchange program that was interrupted only by the Second World War. Additionally, Doshisha collaborates with a consortium of prestigious American liberal arts colleges (including Amherst) to host the Associated Kyoto Program, an 8-month long study abroad program offered every year to students at American colleges.

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