is a private university in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is located in Machida,

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 ...

. Wako University is part of a comprehensive educational institute called Wako-Gakuen (和光学園) (meaning Wako schools), that includes kindergarten, two elementary schools, junior high school and high school. All schools are located in Tokyo. The university has direct attached schools, so that people who have attended from the elementary school are relatively wealthy and then they directly go to the university without taking an examination.

History

Wako University was founded in 1966 as a four-year

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

institution of higher learning. Wako's founder and first president, Dr. Satoru Umene, was a pioneering educator who led the postwar movement to reform Japanese higher education.

Controversy

In 2004, Wako University accepted one applicant, however, upon learning that the applicant was the daughter of

Shoko Asahara , born , was the founder and leader of the Japanese doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and was also involved in several other crimes. Asahara was sentenced ...

, the mastermind behind the

Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapid ...

, they rescinded her acceptance. This was a controversial event and an assistant professor,

Eiji Otsuka Eiji is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Eiji can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *, "prosperity, peace" *, "great, peace" *, "great, second" *, "eternity, next" The name can also be written in ...

, resigned in protest. The president of the university at the time, Osamu Mitsuhashi, was a professor of sociology who had recently published the book "Notes of Discrimination". In end, the university was sentenced by

Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.Supreme Court of Japan websit東京地方裁判所の紹介Retrieved on August 7, 2011 See also *Judicial system of Japan The judiciary (also known as the judicial sys ...

to pay a fine of ￥300,000 (US$2,500).

Undergraduate departments

Faculty of Human Sciences

*Psychology and Education *Sociological Studies *Human and Environmental Well-being

Faculty of Representational studies

*Transcultural studies *Art

Faculty of Economics and Business Management

*Economics *Business and Media

Graduate department

*Social and Cultural Studies

Faculty

References

External links

Wako University (English is available)
{{authority control Private universities and colleges in Japan Machida, Tokyo 1966 establishments in Japan Educational institutions established in 1966