Notes from the President

Congratulations on your admission to APU. This fall semester, we welcome 649 new students. We have students joining us from 19 countries and regions in Asia, three in the Middle East, 16 in Africa, three in the Americas, 8 in Oceania, and 17 in Europe. I am also very honored to welcome for the first time to APU students from the African island nation of Sao Tome and Principe and the Pacific island nations of Kiribati and Niue.

APU admits new students twice a year, in the spring and fall semesters. Including your class of fall entrants, we now have a total of 5,828 enrolled students, which includes 2,994 international students from 88 countries and regions and 2,834 domestic students.

Seventeen years have passed since APU’s inauguration, and over 15,000 people from a total of 148 countries and regions, now active throughout Japan and around the world, have studied at APU. Moreover, half of our faculty are non-Japanese, hailing from 24 countries and regions. This type of diversity is exceptional not just in Japan, but all over the world. I hope you will make the most of your time here as you engage in friendly rivalry and help each other excel. APU’s pursuit of diversity is rooted in the belief that diversity that breeds creativity, so it is our aim to instill students with the global sensibility required to respect and understand other people.

Japan is home to roughly 780 universities. In 2014, MEXT, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, selected only 37 of these universities for its Top Global University Project. APU was selected for this project as a result of the solid reputation it has earned as a leader of internationalization in Japanese higher education. Out of these 37 universities, APU is unquestionably the most diverse. In the first-ever ranking of Japanese universities conducted by U.K.-based Times Higher Education earlier this year, APU took the top spot in diversity, and ranked an impressive 24th overall. APU is also notable for its vision calling for the cultivation of global citizens who can leverage our highly diverse multilingual and multicultural campus to generate new value through dialogue and cooperation. The global standard education we have prepared for you is designed to help you discover and hone your talents. I hope you will all sharpen your respective skills as you carve out the path to your future. Your talent cannot blossom without proper nurturing.

I believe each of you have an idea about the kind of person you want to become. It is my hope that you will become people equipped with a sharp intellect, and the ability to engage in the intellectual struggle necessary to discern fact from fiction. Naturally, an ideal like this may be hard to achieve, but envisioning and aiming for such an ideal can clarify your intention to become a better person, and will fill you with a passion for life.

Last year, the College of International Management and the Graduate School of Management earned accreditation from AACSB, an internationally renowned business education accreditation agency. This makes APU just the third AACSB-accredited institution in Japan, and the only one where students can earn an undergraduate business degree in English or Japanese and an MBA entirely in English. APU is now developing to foster deeper ties with business schools around the globe as it aims to become one of Asia’s top providers of business education.

Since its inauguration, APU has developed a close relationship with Japan’s corporate sector. Every year, many companies come to our campus from Tokyo and Kansai to recruit and hire new graduates. The reason Japanese companies prefer APU students is because they come equipped with specialized knowledge and a global mindset, that is, a mind open to different cultures and values and the willingness to tackle new challenges.

You cannot succeed if you do not try. Please make the most of this unique campus as you take on new challenges and carve out your future.

Welcome to APU!