Waseda University (早稲田大学), abbreviated as Waseda (早稲田) or Sōdai (早大), is a private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by the former Prime Minister of Japan, Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.Waseda is organized into thirty-six departments: thirteen undergraduate schools and twenty-three 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 is selected as one of the “Top Type” (Type A) universities under MEXT's Top Global University Project. Waseda University has the highest entrance examination difficulty level among private universities in Japan.Its alumni include nine prime ministers of Japan, a number of important figures of Japanese literature, including Haruki Murakami, and many CEOs, including Tadashi Yanai, the CEO of UNIQLO, Nobuyuki Idei, the former CEO of Sony, Shin Kyuk-ho, founder of Lotte Group, Takeo Fukui, the former president and CEO of Honda, Norio Sasaki, the former CEO of Toshiba, Lee, Kun-hee and Lee, Byung-chul, the chairman and founder of Samsung Group, Mikio Sasaki, the former chairman of Mitsubishi, and Hiroshi Yamauchi and Shuntaro Furukawa, former and current presidents of Nintendo respectively, as well as influential Chinese government figures such as Zhou Enlai and Li Dazhao. Kim Seong-su, former Vice President of South Korea, established Korea University, one of the Korean peninsula’s leading institutions. This connection led to a professional academic collaboration between Waseda and Korea University starting in 1973, culminating in a dual degree program at the bachelor’s and master’s levels.In 1982, Waseda University initiated an academic exchange agreement with Peking (Beijing) University. Since 2005, this partnership has offered double degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral (Ph.D.) levels, illustrating the university’s dedication to international academic collaboration. Source: Wikipedia (en)