Shizuoka University

Founded as part of the Japanese reformation of its education system in 1949, Shizuoka University is a humanities and sciences university based in the central prefecture in Japan from which it is named. There are campuses in Shizuoka city and Hamamatsu, which combine modern amenities with stunning natural beauty, and are both around a two hour drive from Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan.

There are six faculties at Shizuoka; Humanities, Education, Informatics, Science, Engineering and Agriculture. At the faculty of Informatics, Shizuoka was the first institute in Japan to combine an the study of telecommunications with the humanities in an interdisciplinary approach. In 2004, the Ministry of Education recognised the faculty as offering exceptional courses of education.

There are also two research institutes at Shizuoka, those of Electronics and Green Science. In 2016 Shizuoka faculty member Prof. Kawagishi Hirokazu won the Japan Prize of Agricultural Science for his work over the previous year.

In 2015 Shizuoka introduced its Asia Bridge Program, offering scholarships to students in the nations of India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. The bachelor programme for Asia Bridge is offered in Japanese in six departments, and four departments offer a two year Master’s studies in English. The International Centre offers Japanese language lessons for all overseas students.

Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor Co., studied at Hamamatsu Technology College, now the school of Engineering at Shizuoka University. Some other well known Shizuoka alumni are Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and chairperson of Mitsubishi, Gayu Uesugi. Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki, has been granted an honorary doctorate.