President's Message

Akita International University, also known as AIU, is a liberal arts institution with a student population of about 800. Located in Akita prefecture on the northern seaboard of the main island of Japan, we provide each international student with a rigorous academic curriculum as well as the opportunity to experience and understand the people and culture of Japan through extracurricular activities.

Among Japanese universities with an international focus, AIU is distinctive. To name a few reasons:

      • approximately 200 courses per semester offered entirely in English
      • introductory through advanced Japanese language courses taught in Japanese
      • state-of-the-art facilities, including a 24/7 library and IT lab
      • April or September enrollment possible
      • more than 150 international students each semester from some 25 countries and regions
      • nearly 200 cross-cultural community involvement programs each year

We created this truly international academic community solely for one purpose: to produce future leaders for 21st-century societies and organizations. In achieving this goal, we are reforming Japanese higher education by developing a university that collaborates as well as keeps pace with prominent universities across the globe.

With dedicated faculty and staff members, we encourage you to learn together with our internationally-minded students. I am quite certain that your experience here will be one of the highlights of your life.

 

Mineo Nakajima, President
Akita International University

Letters from the President's Office

 

Mineo Nakajima

B.A., China Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 1960
M.A., International Relations, The University of Tokyo, 1965
Ph.D., Sociology, The University of Tokyo, 1980
  • Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies from 1977 to 2001
  • President of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies from 1995 to 2001
  • Vice-President of the Japan Association of National Universities from 1998 to 2001
  • Secretary-General of the University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific (UMAP) from 1998 to 2006
  • Committee member of the Central Education Council (Chairperson of the Graduate School Department) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) from 2001 to 2007
  • President of the University Seminar House, Inc., from 2000 to 2006
  • Executive Board Member of the Talent Education Research Institute, Inc., from 1996 to 2006
  • Visiting professor successively at the Australian National University; Insutitut d’Études Politiques de Paris; The Graduate School of IR/PS, University of California, San Diego
  • Member, Cabinet Education Rebuilding Council from 2006 to 2008
  • President, Talent Education Research Institute, Corp. from 2008

 

Publications:

  • Gendai Chuugokuron
    (On Contemporary China: Ideology and Politics, Aoki Shoten, 1964)
  • Chuuso Tairitsu to Gendai
    (The Sino-Soviet Confrontation in Historical Perspective, Chuo Koron Sha, 1978)
  • Pekin Retsu Retsu
    (Beijing in Flux, Chikuma Shobo 1981) <received the Suntory Academic Prize>
  • Kokusai Kankei Ron
    (International Relations, Chuo Koron Sha, 1992)
  • Chuugoku-Taiwan-Honkon
    (China,Taiwan and Hong Kong, PHP Institute, 1999)
  • “Foreign Relations: from the Korean War to the Bandung Line”
    (Cambridge History of China, vol.14, Cambridge University Press, 1987)
  • Nijuisseiki no Daigaku
    (Universities in the 21st Century, Ronso sha, 2004)
  • From Akita, a Global Standard
    (The Asahi Shimbun January 26, 2009)

 

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