Waseda University

Waseda University (早稲田大学, Waseda Daigaku), abbreviated as Sōdai (早大), is a private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.

Waseda has numerous notable alumni, including nine Prime Ministers of Japan, a number of important figures of Japanese literature, including Haruki Murakami, and many CEOs, including Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of UNIQLO, Nobuyuki Idei, the former CEO of Sony, Takeo Fukui, the former president and CEO of Honda, Norio Sasaki, the former CEO of Toshiba, Lee Kun-hee, the Chairman of Samsung Group, Mikio Sasaki, the former Chairman of Mitsubishi, and Hiroshi Yamauchi and Shuntaro Furukawa, former and current Presidents of Nintendo respectively. Waseda was ranked 26th and 48th globally in the QS Graduate Employability Rankings 2017 and Times Higher Education Alma Mater Index 2017, respectively.

Waseda is domestically and regionally known as the most prestigious Japanese university particularly for its humanity education, and consistently ranks among the most academically selective and prestigious universities in Japanese university rankings. It is often ranked alongside Keio University, its rival, as the best private university in Japan. In 2020–2021, Waseda ranked 189th in the QS World University Rankings. Waseda is among the top type of the select Japanese universities assigned additional funding under the MEXT's Top Global University Project to enhance Japan's global educational competitiveness.

Waseda is organized into thirty-six departments: thirteen undergraduate schools and twenty-three graduate schools. As of May 2016, there were 42,860 undergraduate students and 8,269 graduate students. In addition to a central campus in Shinjuku, the university operates campuses in Chūō, Nishitōkyō, Tokorozawa, Honjō, and Kitakyūshū. Waseda also operates twenty-one research institutes at its main Shinjuku campus. The Waseda University Library is collectively one of Japan's largest libraries and currently hold some 4.5 million volumes and 46,000 serials.