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Tenri University

Reporter
World University Rankings 2024
201+
Japan University Rankings 2023
Reporter
Asia University Rankings 2023
1050 Somanouchi, Tenri, Nara, 632-8510, Japan

About Tenri University

Tenri Universiuty is the only university in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, around 30 miles from Osaka. Like the town it takes its name from Tenrikyo, a Japanese religious movement promoting the "joyous life" which has close to 17,000 churches and two million adherents in Japan.

It was founded in 1925 as Japan’s first private foreign language school, with the aim of providing Tenrikyo overseas missionaries. It attained university status, with a single faculty of humanities, in 1949. Its campus is part of the Oyasata-Yakata complex, since 1954 the headquarters of the religion with other facilities including a seminary, schools and a hospital.

There were just over 3,000 students in 2017, with around a third believed to followers of Tenrikyo. It offers a "humanistic education" spread across faculties of human studies, letters, international studies and budo (a form of Japanese martial arts) and sports studies. Budo and sports studies (902 students) and area studies (718) were the largest departments, accounting for just over half the total roll.

The university library has more than 1.45 million volumes, including a significant religious collection and more than 100 items classified as national treasures, and it also oversees the Sankokan Museum, which has important ethnology and art collections.

It has strong sporting traditions, with its judo team winning 11 national collegiate championships by 2013 and four Olympic and World Champions among its alumni including Anton Geesink, the Dutchman who broke Japan’s monopoly of world and Olympic titles in the 1960s. The rugby squad was runner-up in the national collegiate championships in 2011 and 2019.

Explore rankings data for Tenri University

All ranked institutions have an overall score and 4 pillar scores. However for each pillar, only institutions ranked in the top 500 overall or the top 500 in this pillar have a publicly visible score

Compare universities on their key stats

Key statistics

  • 36 : 64
    Student Ratio of Females to Males
    (1)
  • 4%
    Proportion of ISR Publication
    (1)
  • 6%
    Percentage of International Students
    (1)
  • 23.4
    No. of students per staff
    (1)
  • 3,156
    Number of FTE Students
    (1)
  • ¥1,681
    Finance per Student (¥000s)
    (2)
Based on data collected for the (1) 2024 World University Rankings and (2) 2023 Japan University Rankings

Subjects taught at Tenri University

  • Psychology

    • Psychology
  • Life sciences

    • Sport Science
  • Arts & humanities

    • Languages, Literature & Linguistics
    • Archaeology
    • History, Philosophy & Theology
  • Clinical, pre-clinical & health

    • Other Health