Sophia University, Japan’s oldest Catholic university, is positioned within the rich religious traditional cultures of East Asia. Based on these distinctive characteristics, it plays an important role in promoting dialectic mutual understanding between Christianity and other religions. This Institute was established as a principal section for implementing this mission conducted in cooperation with other organizations within the University. It aims to spread knowledge of Christianity in Japanese culture and contribute to mutual understanding with Eastern religions, particularly those in Japan.

• Hosting of ongoing lecture sessions
• Hosting of Bible lectures
• Collection and opening to the public of library materials related to Christianity and other religions (library resources: 13,930 volumes in Japanese, 7,765 in foreign languages, periodicals 163 titles)
• This institute belongs to the“Catholic University and Christian Culture Research Institute Communication Council” and the Catholic university“Ecumenical Group for the Study of Interfaith Dialog (EGSID)”, and sponsors cooperative projects with these organizations

• Bulletin
• Publication of Lectures and seminars