Aoyama Gakuin University

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally set up in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church and was then reconfigured into its current state in 1949 to form Aoyama Gakuin. It is one of Japan’s oldest higher education facilities. In accordance with its religious roots, it aims to educate students with a strong sense of social responsibility and morality so as to contribute to the modern world, with an educational policy based on the Christian faith. Its motto is "Salt of the earth, light of the world". It has 19,993 students, of which 18,527 are undergraduates and 1,436 are postgraduates. Undergraduate and graduate programmes cover literature, law, economics, business, international politics, communication, science, engineering and cultural studies, as well as graduate programmes in specialist areas like international management, law and professional accounting. The Aoyama campus is located in the eastern part of Shibuya, near the Minato ward, which is one of the most sophisticated of Tokyo’s 23 wards. This area is characterised by its abundant greenery despite its central location in the middle of the Tokyo metropolitan area, near the city’s financial district. It is also home to the AGU Gymnasium, which is the home arena of the Sun Rockers Shibuya, one of Japan’s professional basketball league teams. The Sagamihara campus, in Kanagawa (90 minutes from the Aoyama campus) is close to Aoyama Gakuin’s two sports fields, where students can partake in the university’s wide variety of sports clubs, such as basketball, baseball, track and badminton. It maintains a number of active international exchange programmes for students and faculty and is well known for its international focus.