Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

The need to foster global human resources is of paramount concern today in all areas of industry, government, and academia. Globalization has been making dramatic advances with the advent of the 21st century, blurring the lines between domestic and overseas markets and bringing about massive movements of people and commodities across national borders.

As economies, societies, and cultures are drawn into the whirlwind of globalization, people are needed who see things from an all-encompassing bird’s-eye perspective and who can make appropriate decisions within a broad, global context.

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies ensures that its students leave with excellent language training and a deep knowledge of the world’s cultures and societies so that they will be able to make meaningful contribution to the globalization process. TUFS has been fostering global human resources for 150 years, going back to the days of its precursor, the Bansho Shirabesho, an institution for the study and translation of Western books and diplomatic documents established by the shogunate at the end of the Edo period in the latter half of the 1800s.

Outstanding global leaders are independent, assertive, and willing to undertake challenges. TUFS assists its students in acquiring these characteristics through diverse academic and extra-curricular activities. Our objective is to foster our students’ creativity and critical thinking skills so that they will become multilingual global citizens, active throughout the world.

As Japan’s only national university for the humanities and social sciences with a name indicative of its specialized focus, we believe we are uniquely positioned in this 21st century of globalization to accumulate global knowledge and interact with the global society.

The mission of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies shall be to conduct research and instruction, both theoretical and practical, on the world's languages and the cultures rooted in them, to provide the cultural refinement necessary to engage in international activities, and to deepen the understanding of regions around the world through the study of their languages.