Educating the Men and Women to Meet the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

The Chancellor of Sophia School Corporation, Toshiaki Koso

Sophia University will celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of its foundation in the year 2013. We are striving to become a university that can stand comparison with highly ranked universities throughout the world. To this end, The Grand Layout for Educational, Research, and Campus Renewal was published in May of 2001. Members of the university community are currently participating in polishing and improving the plans for concrete actions in these areas.

The university foundation dates back to 1913. In 1908, three Jesuit priests arrived in Japan in response to a request from the Roman Pontiff at that time, Pope Pius X. Five years later, they opened the first Catholic university in Japan on this Kioi site. The name Kioi derives from the names of three daimyo families whose mansions were located in this area: Kii-Tokugawa, Owari-Tokugawa, and Ii.

The Japanese name of this university, "Jochi" refers to a Greek word for the highest form of wisdom, "Sophia." The word Jochi comes from the Japanese translation of one of the petitions contained in a traditional Catholic prayer: the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The phrase "Seat of Wisdom (Jochi no za)" appears in this litany.

The ultimate origin of Sophia University can be traced back to the plans of the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, who came to Japan in 1549 to spread Christianity. As a young university student, he had studied at the University of Paris and had received a degree there that allowed him to teach theology. Xavier was deeply impressed by the overall excellence and the strength of the intellectual curiosity of the Japanese people. Thus, Xavier wanted to establish in Japan a university like the University of Paris that would excel in academic areas.

Xavier imagined a continuous exchange of culture, thought, and religious studies between Europe and Japan coming through this institution. His plan started in the Kirishitan period with a Collegio, a higher-level educational institution in many ways equivalent to a university. The dream of Xavier was completely fulfilled 360 years later, when our Sophia University was founded.

As we now prepare for the one-hundredth anniversary of our founding in 2013, we strive to create a new version of Xavier’s dream, a university supported by five columns of emphasis; life-long education, human welfare, the global environment, international exchanges, and cultivation of men and women who are adequately trained to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.