Ashikaga Institute of Technology

Ashikaga University was founded Ashikaga Institute of Technology in 1967 on a philosophy of wa, 'Harmony is to be valued,' which was advocated by the 6th century ardent Buddhist and politician Prince Shotoku. Ashikaga University is located in the city of Ashikaga which is richly endowed by nature and well known for the remains of Ashikaga Gakko or Japan's oldest academic institution. It has long been dedicated to engineering education and has turned out 'thinking engineers' since its foundation.

Today's Ashikaga University organization is the direct descendent of Ashikaga Jissen Women's School which was established by Bukkyo Wago-kai, an organization of 17 leading Buddhist temples in Ashikaga. Under the post-war educational system reform, the organization established an educational foundation to accommodate the local community's request for higher education. The foundation, now developed into the Ashikaga University educational foundation, operates one university, one junior college, two high schools, and one kindergarten.

When it established the educational foundation, Bukkyo Wago-kai adopted Prince Shotoku's teaching, "Harmony is to be valued,' as its founding philosophy. Prince Shotoku, the father oflapanese Buddhism, is a highly revered figure in Japan and his teaching is inscribed in the Seventeen-Article Constitution authored by him in 604. The spirit contained in his teaching has been preserved unchanged in each of the schools operated by the Ashikaga University educational foundation.

Based on the idea ofintegrating Buddhist philosophy into its education, it has helped students cultivate a Buddhist ethos and create awareness about the meaning of their own existence in the world, and thus has fostered engineers with a 'human' touch. Through all the programs within the department of engineering, Ashikaga University aims at producing graduates who have the following: 'the ability to fulfill their responsibility in terms of man and society in harmony with nature, based on the "spirit of harmony" of the founding philosophy of the organization. 'the ability to think in perspective based on a comprehensive knowledge of culture, history, Buddhism, and physical sciences. 'the ability to properly use information technology for problem solving. 'the ability to use a broad-based knowledge of engineering for the development of industry.

A statue of Prince Shotoku stands at the center of the campus at Ashikaga University, the founding philosophy of which is Prince Shotoku's teaching that harmony is to be valued. Prince Shotoku, renowned for his patronage of Buddhism, helped spread Buddhism throughout Japan. The statue is a symbol ofAshikaga University which has adopted Buddhist teachings as its basic philosophy of education. There must be 'harmony' between body and mind in ourselves, between parents and children in the family, or between ourselves and others in society. This idea also applies to the relationship between us and the natural environment inhabited by plants and animals. So, it is imperative for us to develop industry and technology in terms of harmony between man and nature, and thus to make harmonious and sustainable development possible. We hope that all these efforts of ours will lead to environmental preselvation, and finally to world peace.

Our superb faculty of dedicated professors offers finely textured education, especially in their seminars. They are engaged in a number of world-class, groundbreaking, and unique research projects, along with a deep commitment to nurturing competent and skilled engineering specialists. On top of that, Ashikaga University is renowned for its high job placement rate.

We are now in the 21st century which is often referred to as the age of life and environment. In order to respond to the demands of the present age, we reorganized our department in April 2011 to make a new start. Ashikaga University truly strives to have an impact on the communities we serve and help its students become the professionals and leaders of tomorrow.