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.[3]
Waseda has numerous notable alumni, including nine Prime Ministers of Japan,[4] 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 regarded as one of the most selective and prestigious universities in Japanese university rankings, particularly for its humanities and social sciences education. 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 select Japanese universities assigned additional funding under the MEXT's Top Global University Project to enhance Japan's global educational competitiveness.[5]
