Sophia University

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Sophia University
上智大学
Badge of Sophia University
Motto: Lux Veritatis (Light of Truth)
Established: 1913
Type: Private Catholic, Jesuit
Chancellor: Rev. Fr. Toshiaki Koso, SJ
President: Prof. Yoshiaki Ishizawa, Ph.D
Staff: 1,000
Undergraduates: 10,000
Postgraduates: 1,000
Location: Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Campus: Urban
Affiliation: Society of Jesus
Website: www.sophia.ac.jp
Sophia University
Sophia University

Sophia University (上智大学 Jōchi daigaku?) is a private university in Japan, with its main campus located in Yotsuya, an area of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward in Japan. Sophia is very known for its female students.

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[edit] 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 sophia meaning "wisdom". 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Noted faculty members

[edit] Famous alumni

[edit] External links