is a private Christian university in

Shibuya Shibuya ( 渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as part of Aoyama Gakuin. Aoyama Gakuin University had its 140th anniversary in 2014 and is one of Japan's oldest higher education facilities. The university's undergraduate and graduate programs include courses on literature, law, economics, business, international politics, economics, communication, science, engineering and cultural studies. The university graduate programs include international management, law and professional accounting. Aoyama Gakuin University has participated in

Hakone Ekiden , officially called the , is one of the most prominent university ''ekiden'' (relay marathon) races of the year held between Tokyo and Hakone in Japan on January 2 and 3. The race is telecast on Nippon Television. This two-day race from Ōtemachi ...

, an annual university relay race between Tokyo and Hakone in Japan. Recently they won the races in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022.

General information

The main campus, located in Omotesando in central Tokyo, is complemented by the

Sagamihara is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 723,470, with 334,812 households, and a population density of 1,220 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Sagamihara is the third-most-populous city ...

Campus in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...

. The latter houses the College of Science and Sports. The university has graduated around 180,000 students and employs over 1,600 full and part-time faculty members. Aoyama Gakuin University is accredited by the British University Association and is a member of the British Association of Private College and Universities. The university maintains a number of active international exchange programs for students and faculty. Many of the students and faculty have attended universities and research institutes abroad, while the institution itself has attracted numerous outstanding scholars and students from around the world to its campuses.

Organization

Undergraduate programs

* College of Literature * College of Education, Psychology and Human Studies * College of Economics * Faculty of Law * School of Business * School of International Politics, Economics and Communication (SIPEC) * School of Cultural and Creative Studies * College of Science and Engineering * School of Social Informatics * School of Global Studies and Collaboration * College of Community Studies (started in 2019) * The Aoyama Standard University-Wide Universal Education System

Graduate programs

* Graduate School of Literature * Graduate School of Education, Psychology and Human Studies * Graduate School of Economics * Graduate School of Law * Graduate School of Business * Graduate School of International Politics, Economics and Communication * Graduate School of Cultural and Creative Studies * Graduate School of Science and Engineering * Graduate School of Social Informatics
Graduate School of International Management
(

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

) * Law School * Graduate School of Professional Accountancy

Research institutes

* Research Institute of Aoyama Gakuin University * Economics Research Center * Business Law Research Center * SACRE * Global Business Research Center *

Global Politics Global politics, also known as world politics, names both the discipline that studies the political and economic patterns of the world and the field that is being studied. At the centre of that field are the different processes of political globa ...

and Economy Research Center * Information Science Research Center * WTO Research Center * Center for Advanced Technology * Center for Machinery Analysis

Campus

* Aoyama Campus (4-4-25, Shibuya,

, Tokyo) : Includes two registered Tangible Cultural Properties, "Majima Memorial Hall（間島記念館）" and "Berry Hall". * Sagamihara Campus (5-10-1, Fuchinobe,

, Kanagawa) * Midorigaoka Ground (2-6097-1, Midorigaoka, Sagamihara, Kanagawa) * Machida Ground (1571, Kotani, Onoji-cho,

Machida, Tokyo is a Cities of Japan, city located in West Tokyo, the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 428,851, and a population density of 6,000 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography ...

)

AGU Gymnasium

AGU Gymnasium is an

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

in Aoyama campus. It is the home arena of the Sun Rockers Shibuya of the B.League, Japan's professional basketball league. File:Aoyama Gakuin Majima Memorial Hall 02.JPG, Majima Memorial Hall in Aoyama campus File:Aoyama Gakuin Berry Hall.JPG, Berry Hall in Aoyama campus File:青山学院大学相模原キャンパスB棟.JPG, Sagamihara campus Bldg.B File:Aoyama Gakuin University Goucher Memorial Hall.JPG, Goucher Memorial Hall in Aoyama campus File:Statue of Love Yoshizumi Yokoe.JPG, Statue of Love in Majima Archives File:Aoyama Gakuin Univ. Sagamihara campus chapel.jpg, Chapel at the Sagamihara campus

Rankings

The school ranks 11th in the country in the number of alumni elected to the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

, and 13th in the number of alumni holding executive-level positions in the country with listed companies. Its graduates rank 8th in Japan in the number of successful passings of the national CPA exam. The university is also on the list of top 20 most popular universities in Tokyo. The main campus is located in the Shibuya area, and the students are generally viewed as having come from more affluent backgrounds and are regarded as sophisticated. The school has been lauded for its undergraduate focus on the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

and business education. In the 2020–2021 University Brand Image Survey conducted by

Nikkei BP , commonly known as , is a book and magazine publisher based in Tokyo, Japan. The company was established as , a joint venture of Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) and McGraw-Hill in 1969, and it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nikkei in 1988. N ...

Consulting, Aoyama Gakuin University ranked 5th overall in the Greater Tokyo Area and 4th out of the private universities after Waseda, Keio, and Sophia Universities. * QS World university rankings 201: 701＋ ** Modern Languages 201: 151–200 * QS Asian university rankings 201: 201–250

Professors

Robert March Robert M. March (2 May 1927 – 20 November 2010) was an Australian professor who taught in China, Australia and Japan and wrote extensively regarding East Asian business practices.International business) *

Kumiko Haba is a Japanese Professor of International Politics at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo. Her research is International Relations, International Politics, International Sociology, Power Shift and National Anxiety, Immigrants-Refugee questions, Na ...

(Political science, International Relations) * Karl-Friedrich Lenz (German law, EU Law) * Masami Sumiyoshi (Philosophy of law) * Noritada Matsuda (Politics, Political science) * Yoshikazu Miki (Tax law, president of the university) * Akira Ishii (

Criminology Criminology (from Latin , "accusation", and Ancient Greek , ''-logia'', from λόγος ''logos'' meaning: "word, reason") is the study of crime and deviant behaviour. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in both the behavioural and so ...

) * Junichi Kikuchi (

Intellectual property law Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

) * Munehide Nishizawa (

Civil procedure Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced; what ki ...

, French law) * Shin Hae Bong (International law) * Yasunori Osono ( Internal medicine)

Notable graduates

Politicians

Tsuyoshi Takagi is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. Overview A native of Tsuruga, Fukui and graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University is a private ...

(member of the house of representatives, Minister for Reconstruction) *

Kenko Matsuki is a Japanese politician and a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. Overview A native of Sapporo, Hokkaidō and graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2003 aft ...

(member of the house of representatives) *

Shunichi Yamaguchi is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). Overview After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University, Yamaguchi went to Paris to study at Paris IV Un ...

(member of the house of representatives, Minister of state for science and technology policy) * Haruko Arimura (member of the House of councilors, Minister in charge of women's activities) *

Renhō , commonly known by her given name, , is a Japanese politician and former journalist who is a current member of House of Councillors. She was the leader of the now-defunct major Japanese opposition party, the Democratic Party. Early and person ...

(member of the house of councilors, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, consumer affairs minister) * Hiroya Ebina (the mayor of kushiro city) * Hiroshi Nakada (the former mayor of Yokohama, member of the House of Councillors)

Writers

Kiyoshi Kawakami was a Japanese Christian journalist who published several books in the United States and the United Kingdom. He was born in Yonezawa, educated in the law in Japan, and was for a short time engaged in newspaper work in that country. He sometimes w ...

(Christian journalist) *

Atsuko Asano is a Japanese actress.
, sponichi.co.jp; accessed September 3, 2015. Upon marrying Tsutomu Uozumi, a reputed ...

(novelist) *

Hideyuki Kikuchi is a Japanese author known for his horror novels. His most famous works include the '' Vampire Hunter D'' series, ''Darkside Blues'' and '' Wicked City''. Biography Kikuchi was born in Chōshi, Japan on September 25, 1949. He attended Aoyama ...

(novelist) *

Fusanosuke Natsume is a Japanese columnist and cartoonist. Born in Tokyo to Jun'ichi Natsume, grandson of novelist Natsume Sōseki, he attended Aoyama Gakuin University, where he graduated in 1973. He was awarded the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Named after ...

(caricaturist) * Nejime Shōichi (poet) *

Seiichi Morimura is a Japanese novelist and author, born in Kumagaya. He is best known for the controversial ' (悪魔の飽食) (1981), which revealed the atrocities committed by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). ...

(novelist) *

Shigeaki Kato is a member of the J-pop group NEWS, from Johnny's Entertainment, Inc. Biography Kato was born in Hiroshima, Japan, but he grew up in Osaka and Yokohama-shi. He joined Johnny's Entertainment on April 17, 1999 when he was 11 years-old. As a ...

(novelist)

Film and television

Yumi Asō , better known by the stage name , is a Japanese actress. She is a niece of singer Chiyo Okumura. She married actor in March 2004, and they had one child. The couple separated less than two years later, and officially divorced in 2008. Biography ...

(actress) * Mari Hoshino (actress) * Naomi Kawashima (actress) * Horan Chiaki (actress, caster) * Emi Kobayashi (TV performer) * Ai Maeda (actress) *

Yōji Matsuda is a Japanese actor and voice actor from Tokyo, Japan. Early life He was born in Setagaya, Tokyo. His older brother is Naoyuki Matsuda, a musical translator and professor at Komazawa University. After studying at Aoyama Gakuin High School, he d ...

(actor) *

Rie Oh is a TV sportscaster and presenter on the J-Wave radio station in Japan.J-Wave profile
R ...

(sports caster) *

Sayaka Ohara is a Japanese voice actress affiliated with Haikyō. Her major roles include Alicia Florence in ''Aria'', Milly Ashford in '' Code Geass'', Erza Scarlet in '' Fairy Tail'', Irisviel in the '' Fate/Zero'' and '' Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya ...

(

voice actress Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

) *

Ayana Tsubaki is a Japanese TV personality and fashion model. Biography Tsubaki registered at Aoyama Gakuin University while presenting as a male, but left in the second year to work at a transsexual bar in Kabukichō, Tokyo. In July 2006, she underwent sex ...

(model and TV personality) *

Tetsuya Watari born (December 28, 1941 – August 10, 2020) was a Japanese film, stage, and television actor. Life He graduated from Aoyama Gakuin University. Watari belonged to the karate club at university. He made his screen debut in 1964, in Isamu Kosugi ...

(actor) *

Christel Takigawa , commonly known as , is a French-Japanese television announcer and news presenter. She is the wife of politician Shinjirō Koizumi. Biography Takigawa Lardux Christel Masami was born in Paris, France, to a Japanese mother and a French fath ...

(TV announcer) *

Shinobu Terajima is a Japanese actress. Her feature films include '' Akame 48 Waterfalls'' (2003) and '' Vibrator'' (2003). For her role in ''Caterpillar'' (2010), Terajima won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 60th Berlin Film Festival while her performan ...

(Actress, the Best Actress award at the 60th

Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

)

Musicians

Keisuke Kuwata is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and frontman for the Southern All Stars, as well of his own solo band, the Kuwata band. He has also done a significant amount of scoring music for films. He went to Aoyama Gakuin University ...

(musician, leader of

Southern All Stars , also known by the abbreviations and SAS, are a Japanese rock band that first formed in 1974. The band is composed of Keisuke Kuwata (lead vocals and guitars), Yuko Hara (vocals and keyboards), Kazuyuki Sekiguchi (bass), Hiroshi Matsuda (dr ...

) * Kazuyuki Sekiguchi (musician, member of

) *

Masato Nakamura is a Japanese musician, bass guitarist, and record producer. He is a member of the J-pop band Dreams Come True, which was formed in 1988 and went on to sell over 50million CDs. He also composed the soundtracks for the video games ''Sonic the H ...

(musician, member of Dreams Come True) *

Yuko Hara Yuko Hara (原由子 ''Hara Yūko'', born December 11, 1956 in Yokohama, Japan, nicknamed "Harabo") is the keyboardist for Southern All Stars. She is also a vocalist and writes many of her own songs. She is married to Keisuke Kuwata, the mult ...

(musician, member of

) *

Shinji Harada Shinji Harada (Harada Shinji、原田真二) is a famous pop music artist in Japan, born in Hiroshima, on December 5, 1958. After three years of practicing guitar, at the age of fifteen he was ready to play guitar with the band ''Yamaha''. Hara ...

(singer) *

Noriyuki Makihara , nicknamed by his fans, is a Japanese pop singer-songwriter. He has sold a total of 21 million copies in Japan alone. Biography Makihara was born on 18 May 1969 in Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan. He attended Aoyama Gakuin University to study Engli ...

(singer) *

Love Psychedelico is a Japanese rock band, often called Delico for short. They are popular not only in Japan but also Hong Kong and Taiwan. Members * Kumi (Born April 11, 1976, in Chiba Prefecture) – lead vocals, guitars, etc. ** Kumi speaks English because ...

(musician) *

(singer, member of

NEWS News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

) *

Stephanie Stephanie is a female name that comes from the Greek name Στέφανος (Stephanos) meaning "crown". The male form is Stephen. Forms of Stephanie in other languages include the German "Stefanie", the Italian, Czech, Polish, and Russian "St ...

(singer) *

Nana Tanimura , is a Japanese pop singer. Background Tanimura was raised mainly in Osaka. She moved frequently between Osaka and Hawaii between the ages of 3 and 8, after which she also stayed for an extended period of time in Los Angeles. Tanimura was enr ...

(singer) * Rei Fujita (singer, member of

DUSTZ Dustz (currently stylized as DUSTZ) is a Japanese rock band fronted by French-Japanese actor Ray Fujita. Formed by Fujita and two of his classmates from the ''Lycée franco-japonais de Tokyo'', the group has gained national renown by performing t ...

) *

Jun Senoue is a Japanese composer and guitarist who works for Sega, known for his various contributions in the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' video game series. He is also the songwriter for the band Crush 40, which has also contributed to many ''Sonic'' games. B ...

(musician, member of

Crush 40 Crush 40 is a Japanese-American hard rock band. The group consists of guitarist and composer Jun Senoue and vocalist Johnny Gioeli, although Senoue has featured other lead vocalists on a Crush 40 album. Crush 40 is best known for their contri ...

) *

Mari Hamada is a Japanese heavy metal and pop rock singer. Since her debut in 1983, Hamada has been known as the "Heavy Metal Queen" of Japan. Throughout her career, she has released 25 singles and 23 studio albums. Biography Early history Mari Ham ...

(singer) * Alexandros (band) (rock band)

Sports

Tadahito Iguchi , nicknamed "Gucci", is a Japanese served professional baseball second baseman and from manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). As a member of the Chicago White Sox in 2005, Iguchi became the first Japanese-bor ...

(baseball player,

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

) * Yosuke Takasu (baseball player,

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles The , often shortened as the , are a baseball team based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It has played in Nippon Professional Baseball's Pacific League since the team's formation in November 2004. The team is owned by the Internet shopping ...

) * Hiroshi Ogawa (baseball player,

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

) * Shinsuke Nakamura (wrestler) *

Rika Hiraki Rika Hiraki ( ja, 平木理化, born 6 December 1971) is a former professional Japanese tennis player. She won the mixed-doubles title at the 1997 French Open (with Mahesh Bhupathi Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indi ...

(tennis player) *

Daisuke Nakajima is a retired Japanese racing driver; the son of Satoru Nakajima and the younger brother of Kazuki Nakajima, both of whom have driven in Formula One. Career Having started his career in go-karts on the Japanese circuit, Nakajima moved into singl ...

(racecar driver)

Business

Hajime Satomi is a Japanese business magnate. Satomi is known as the founder of Sammy Corporation, which merged with the Japan-based video game and arcade game producer Sega to form the holding company Sega Sammy Holdings. History Hajime Satomi withdrew fr ...

(president of

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

) * Makoto Fujita (president of

CyberAgent is a Japanese digital advertising company, which was founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is owned by Susumu Fujita with 20.50% interest; Fujita is representative director, while Yusuke Hidaka is executive vice ...

) *

Akio Shigemitsu Shin Dong-bin (; born February 14, 1956) is a Korean-Japanese businessman. He also has a Japanese name Akio Shigemitsu ( ja, 重光昭夫, translit=Shigemitsu Akio). As of 2012, he was CEO of the South Korean conglomerate Lotte Corporation an ...

(president of Lotte Korea) * Ryo Morikawa (president of LINE) * Shinichi Koide (chairman, president and CEO of Salesforce.com Co., Ltd.) * Ryuichi Isaka (president of Seven-Eleven Japan Co., Ltd.) * Akiyoshi Koji (president of Asahi Breweries, Ltd.)

Researchers

* Tetsu Tamura (meteorologist, oceanographer) *

(political scientist, international relations) *

Masaaki Shirakawa is a Japanese economist, central banker and the 30th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and professor at Aoyama Gakuin University. He is also a Director and Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Early life Shirakawa ...

(The 30th governor of the Bank of Japan, economist) * Eisuke Sakakibara (former vice-minister for finance for international affairs, economist) * Takenori Inoki (economist, honorary professor of

Osaka University , abbreviated as , is a public research university located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's former Imperial Universities and a Designated National University listed as a "Top Type" university in the Top Global University Project. ...

) * Nobuo Ikeda (economist, blogger) * Hiroyuki Suzuki (Architectural historian) * Tamostu Aoki (The commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, director of

The National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) is a museum in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. A joint project of the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the National Museums Independent Administrative Institution, it stands on a site formerly occupied by a research facility of the Universi ...

)

References

External links

English homepage for Aoyama Gakuin University

Homepage for Aoyama Gakuin University
{{authority control Private universities and colleges in Japan Basketball venues in Japan Shibuya Sun Rockers Shibuya United Church of Christ in Japan 1874 establishments in Japan Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia Universities and colleges in Tokyo Educational institutions established in 1874 Christian universities and colleges in Japan