Tokyo Christian University

TCU emerged out of a merger of three Christian schools. The oldest, founded in 1881 in Yokohama, focused on women’s education, at a time when Japan offered women few opportunities for higher education. In 1949 the Tokyo Christian Theological Seminary came into existence, and 1950 saw the establishment of the Japan Domei Institute. The Domei Institute later offered both a three and a four year course, achieving accreditation as a “junior college.” These three schools merged in 1979, with the goal of upgrading the junior college into a university while maintaining the seminary as a distinct graduate program with its own identity.