About us | Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan

Confucius Institute at RITSUMEIKAN
	On June 28, 2005, at the Chinese embassy in Tokyo the Office of the Chinese Language Council International and the Ritsumeikan Trust entered into an agreement on the establishment of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan. In October of the same year, the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan was established as the first Confucius Institute in Japan. Jointly operated with Peking University, the Institute engages in activities aimed at contributing to regional society and promoting international exchange and international understanding. In the context of these aims, the Institute offers a wide-ranging program in the fields of Chinese language education and training and linguistic and cultural exchange for the benefit of students, researchers, professionals, and others. In June 2006, Tokyo Confucius Classroom (Tokyo Gakudo) was established as a base in the Kanto region and, in spring 2008, Osaka Confucius Classroom (Osaka Gakudo) was established as a new base in the Kansai region with Tongji University as its partner school. In addition to these, another facility, Biwako Kusatsu Campus Confucius Classroom (BKC Gakudo) opened in 2014.
Ritsumeikan University
Ritsumeikan University, adhering to its founding spirit of freedom and innovation and its educational philosophy of peace and democracy, has been engaged in various educational reforms aimed at fostering the learning and development of individual talents in order to nurture global citizens who are able to view social demands with global and multifaceted perspectives and take action at their own initiative. The Ritsumeikan Charter which was formulated in July 2006, serves as the guiding philosophy behind the future evolution of the Ritsumeikan Trust. 　As of April 2012, Ritsumeikan University, a comprehensive academic institution, has four campuses at Kinugasa, BKC, Suzaku and OIC, and encompasses 13 colleges and 20 graduate programs. It has been treading a steady path to establish a distinctive research base of academic creation, as well as promoting the philosophy of ‘freedom and innovation’ and ‘peace and democracy.’ Ritsumeikan University has been vigorously engaged in various activities and reforms in order to address contemporary concerns, such as challenge and innovation, international mutual understanding, multicultural symbiosis, diversity, and social networking.
Suzaku Campus	Kinugasa Campus	Biwako/Kusatsu Campus	Ritsumeikan Asia pacific Univ.
Origin of the name Ritsumeikan
The word ritsumei, which evokes the idea of ‘building one’s life’, is inspired by a passage in a classical Chinese work, Mencius, which says that the length of our life on earth is decreed by heaven and that our duty while on earth is to cultivate mind and body while patiently awaiting heaven’s decree. Ritsumeikan is thus a place where we fulfill this duty to educate ourselves and by doing so build our own future.
History of Friendship between Ritsumeikan University and China
	Ritsumeikan University's long history of valuing and welcoming exchange between Japan and China includes such noteworthy events as the hosting of a team of academic observers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955, a time when diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed, whose president at the time was Guo Moruo, and, in 1957, a delegation from the Red Cross Society of China, of which Li Dequan was president. In particular, the number of visiting students from China has increased since internationalization and reform of universities began in the latter half of the 1980s, and currently stands at over 600, while the number of Ritsumeikan students making study visits to Chinese universities has increased to 150 under the university’s official program alone. Meanwhile, the Special Training Program for Chinese University Administrative Executives, instituted in 2004, has been completed by around 950 participants, many of them Chinese university faculty members. Recent years have seen a further deepening of contacts between Ritsumeikan Academy and China, encouraged by the positive evaluation of our record of mutual exchange in the spirit of peace and academic progress, which has included visits by senior Chinese government officials, and by the favorable assessment of the work of the Confucius Institute at Ritsumeikan.