Waseda University

Waseda University (Japanese: 早稲田大学, Hepburn: Wasedadaigaku), abbreviated as Waseda (早稲田) or Sōdai (早大), is a privateresearch university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the eighth and eleventh prime minister of Japan, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.

Waseda is organized into 36 departments: 13 undergraduate schools and 23 graduate schools. As of 2023, there are 38,776 undergraduate students and 8,490 graduate students. In addition to a central campus in Shinjuku (Waseda Campus and Nishiwaseda Campus), the university operates campuses in Chūō, Nishitōkyō, Tokorozawa, Honjō, and Kitakyūshū. Waseda also operates 21 research institutes at its main Shinjuku campus.

The university's faculty and alumni include eight prime ministers of Japan; three prime ministers of Korea; founders of leading Japanese and Korean companies such as Sony, Uniqlo, Samsung, CJ, Lotte, and POSCO; a number of important figures of Japanese literature, including Haruki Murakami, Yoko Ogawa, and Yoko Tawada.