Tokai University

Tokai University is a private research institution in Japan that was created by Shigeyoshi Matsumae, a former politician, in 1942. The name “Tokai” refers to the Pacific Ocean.

About 1,600 academic staff teach 30,000 students at Tokai and 700 of them come from overseas. The institution is made up of eight campuses spread across the island nation. They are: Shonan, Yoyogi, Takanawa, Isehara, Shimizu, Sapporo, Kumamoto, and Aso. The Isehara campus is situated beside Tokai University Hospital, while waterfront-Shimizu houses the School of Marine Science, and Aso, which is located in a national park, is home to the School of Agriculture.

Five of the campuses are on the central island of Honshu, which is home to the Japanese capital Tokyo, while two campuses are on the island of Hokkaido and the other is on Kyushu.

There are 21 undergraduate schools at Tokai and all courses at this level are taught in Japanese. A year-long Japanese language programme is available for international students. As well as offering an array of courses across the humanities and sciences, the university was the first in Japan to run a pilot training programme in association with the airline All Nippon Airways.

In terms of postgraduate study, there are 20 graduate schools and students can specialise in one of 42 subject areas.

The university has an established international exchange scheme involving more than 35 countries as well as offices in Austria, Thailand, South Korea, Denmark, and Hawaii, US.

Well-known alumni include the sprinter Shingo Suetsugu, an Olympic bronze medallist; judoka Yasuhiro Yamashita, an Olympic gold medallist; and Eiko Harada, a president of McDonald’s Japan.