Meiji University (Japanese: 明治大学, Hepburn: Meiji Daigaku) is a private research university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. Originally founded as Meiji Law School (明治法律学校, Meiji Hōritsu Gakkō) by three lawyers in 1881, it became a university in April 1920.
As of May 2023, Meiji has 32,261 undergraduate students and 2,635 postgraduate students. The university consists of 10 undergraduate, 12 graduate, and 4 professional graduate schools, and operates on four campuses around the Greater Tokyo Area: Surugadai, Izumi, Ikuta, and Nakano. Meiji University is the country's most applied-to university, with applications to its undergraduate degrees amounting to approximately 100,000 annually. Meiji is a part of the Top Global University Project of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. As of 2021, 270 Meiji alumni have competed in the Olympics, garnering 40 medals: 14 gold, 13 silver, and 13 bronze.
Contents
Academics
Undergraduate schools
School of Law
Businesses Law Course
International Relations Law Course
Public Service Law Course
Law and Information Course
Pre-Law School Course
School of Commerce
Applied Economics Course
Marketing Course
Finance & Insurance Course
Global Business Course
Management Course
Accounting Course
Creative Business Course
School of Political Science and Economics
Department of Political Science
Department of Economics
Department of Local Governance
School of Arts and Letters
Department of Literature
Department of History and Geography
Department of Social Psychology
School of Science and Technology
Department of Electrical Engineering
Graduate schools
Graduate School of Law
Graduate School of Commerce
Graduate School of Political Science and Economics
Graduate School of Business Administration
Graduate School of Arts and Letters
Graduate Schools of Informatics and Communication
Graduate School of Science and Technology
Graduate School of Agriculture
Graduate School of Advanced Mathematical Sciences
Graduate School of Humanities
Graduate School of Global Japanese Studies
Graduate School of Global Governance
Professional Graduate Schools
Graduate School of Governance Studies
Graduate School of Global Business
Graduate School of Professional Accountancy
Law School
Campus life
Meiji University Baseball Team belongs to the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League. Every year, rugby union and baseball matches Meisōsen (明早戦) against Waseda University attract support among its students. It also has a successful judo team.
In 2004, Meiji University reorganised existent three museum collections and opened Meiji University Museum. The university announced on February 26, 2009, that it would open a museum dedicated to anime and manga. It will include international research centers hosting Japanese and international scholars as well as a large quality of artifacts on the subject.
Academic rankings
Meiji University has achieved worldwide recognition in various international publications focusing on higher education.
General rankings
The university has been ranked 19th and 26th in 2009 and 2010 respectively in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai. The QS World University Rankings ranked the university 354th in Asia in 2025.
Research performance
The Nikkei Shimbun on 16 February 2004 surveyed about the research standards in engineering studies based on Thomson Reuters, Grants in Aid for Scientific Research and questionnaires to heads of 93 leading Japanese Research Centers, and Meiji was placed 37th in this ranking.
Meiji has filed the 62nd highest number of patents in the nation as its research outcomes.
Graduate school rankings
Meiji Law School is considered one of the top Japanese law schools, as Meiji's number of successful candidates for Japanese bar examination has been 14th and 20th in 2009 and 2010 respectively. It is one of the strongest department in this university as the cumulative number of people qualified as lawyer and prosecutor has been historically sixth after WW2.
Eduniversal ranked Meiji as fourth in the rankings of "Excellent Business Schools nationally strong and/or with continental links" in Japan.
Alumni rankings
According to the Weekly Economist's 2010 rankings, graduates from Meiji University have the 35th best employment rate in 400 major companies
The university is also ranked sixth in Japan for the number of alumni holding the position of executive in the listed companies of Japan, and this number per student (probability of becoming an executive) is 25th.
Meiji graduates have been ranked fifth in Japan in the number of successful national CPA exam applicants. Its graduates have been also ranked ninth in Japan in the number of successful Architect Registration exam applicants.
Furthermore, the number of Members of Parliament who graduated Meiji is sixth in Japan.
Popularity and selectivity
The number of applicants per place was 24.9 (113,905/4,582) in the 2011 undergraduate admissions, this number of applicants (113,905) was largest in 2011. Its entrance difficulty is also very selective.
Meiji university is regarded as comparable with the Tokyo-area private universities Aoyama Gakuin, Rikkyo, Chuo, and Hosei, collectively called "MARCH".
Alumni
Meiji University's alumni have included: Japan's first female lawyer, 2 Japanese prime ministers, 48 national politicians, 380 professional athletes, 115 company presidents, and 264 artists.
Politics
The 66th Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki (1974–1976)
The 81st Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama (1994–1996)
Gibril Ibrahim (Minister of Finance and Economic Planning) in the republic of Sudan.
Xie Jieshi (Manchu Empire Foreign Minister)
Hasegawa Nyozekan
Abdoel Madjid Usman (Indonesian revolutionary, first Indonesian to study in Japan)
Yōsuke Matsuoka (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
Ichio Asukata (chairman of the Japan Socialist Party)
Takashi Sasagawa (Minister)
Ken Harada (Minister of Economic Planning)
Masayuki Fujio (Minister of Education)
Hiromichi Watanabe
Yoshitaka Sakurada
Fumiaki Matsumoto
Ritsuo Hosokawa (Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare)
Yoshitaka Shindo (Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications)
Satoshi Takayama
Shigeo Kitamura
Yoshio Urushibara
Koichi Tani
Others
Yū Aku (lyricist, poet, and novelist)
Seiya Ando (basketball player)
Hideki Arai (manga artist)
Morio Agata (singer)
Nahomi Edamoto (culinary expert)
Yuta Fujihara (professional football player)
Tatsuji Fuse (Korean independence movement custodian)
Hideo Gosha (film director)
Koji Hashimoto (professional football player)
Masaaki Hatsumi (martial artist, founder of Bujinkan)
Tiger Hattori (professional wrestling referee, New Japan Pro-Wrestling)
Syu Hiraide (novelist, lawyer)
Takafumi Hori (football manager)
Senichi Hoshino (baseball player, manager)
Kei Inoo (member of Hey! Say! JUMP, idol, actor, singer)
Mao Inoue (actress)
Sogo Ishii
Kensuke Isidu (fashion designer)
Sachio Ito (novelist)
Kaiji Kawaguchi (manga artist)
Yuzo Kawashima (film director)
Sister Universities
National Formosa University, Yunlin, Taiwan