APU is a member of the greater Ritsumeikan Academy which includes APU, Ritsumeikan University and a number of primary, junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. The Ritsumeikan Charter states that, “Ritsumeikan traces its roots to Prince Saionji's private academy of the same name, established in 1869. It was officially founded in 1900 by his protégé, Kojuro Nakagawa, as the Kyoto Hosei Gakko (Kyoto School of Law and Politics), later to take on the name "Ritsumeikan". The name is derived from a passage in the Jinxin chapter of the Discourses of Mencius, and means "a place to establish one's destiny through cultivating one's mind." Ritsumeikan's founding ideals are "freedom and innovation" and reflecting upon its wartime experience, it committed itself to a core educational philosophy of "peace and democracy" after World War II.
In the early 1990s the concept of creating a truly international university in the City of Beppu was first raised by the Governor of Oita Prefecture, Mr Morihiko Hiramatsu with the then Chancellor of the Ritsumeikan Trust in Kyoto, Mr Kawamoto. This led to various activities over a decade and culminated with the opening of the university at Jumonjibaru, above Beppu City in April 2000 with much fanfare.
Today the university has an enrollment of just over 6,000 students. While half of the students are domestic Japanese students, nearly 50% of APU students are international students from 97 countries and regions around the world. This 50-50 balance is a feature unique to APU amongst Japanese universities and APU is second only to Waseda University in terms its number of international students.
An interesting feature of APU is its bilingual educational system; it offers dual language education in English and Japanese in the two undergraduate colleges. The graduate programs are conducted exclusively in English. The current undergraduate programs are conducted in the College of International Management and College of Asia Pacific Studies. Further, specialized post-graduate programs are conducted in the Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies and Graduate School of Management. A feature of the university is that students are accepted for enrollment and graduate twice a year, once in spring and fall respectively.
Apart from academic activities, this university provides many opportunities for students to take part in extra curricular activities ranging from club activities to multi-cultural events. Full time assistance by university departments help students not only to continue their studies smoothly, but also grasp valuable employment opportunities in many leading multinational firms.
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