ICU is like a Small Planet

The ICU campus attracts students from across Japan and multiple countries worldwide.
A place where people can experience different personalities and be themselves.

  • Lawn Area

    Dialogue unfolds as we transcend different languages, backgrounds, and cultures.
    The lawn area is symbolic of ICU, a place for relaxing and a place for learning.

    About this place

    • Dialogue

      Dialogue

      A time for interacting with other friends and faculty. Expressing your own opinions while respecting different perspectives and the opinions of others will help students cultivate communication skills that will serve them throughout their life.

    • Bilingualism

      Bilingualism

      At ICU, we don’t learn English, we learn in English. Our dialogues are freely conducted in English and Japanese (and sometime other languages as well) and language becomes a means for promoting thought and expression.

  • Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall

    A new base for liberal arts that transcends the boundaries between the sciences and humanities.
    A space where all students can gather and encourage the fusion of knowledge created through encounters and free exchange of views.

    About this place

    • Science

      Science

      The building features a floor-to-ceiling glass-walled laboratory. The environment is designed so that students get to see the learning of natural sciences as they pass by and feel more familiar and at home with the concepts of science in their daily lives.

    • Cross Over

      Cross Over

      In addition to the natural sciences laboratories and research rooms, the building also houses humanities and social science research facilities, bringing the previously dispersed fields all under one roof. The complex is designed to promote cross-disciplinary interaction and the fusion of knowledge.

  • University Hall

    The University Hall is where ICU’s renowned dialogue-oriented, small-group classes are held.
    Students develop practical and deep critical thinking skills in this historic building.

    About this place

    • Critical Thinking

      Critical Thinking

      Skepticism or disbelief should not targeted at others but at your own common sense. The ability to abandon preconceived notions and prejudices and discuss ideas together helps students build a multifaceted perspective and logic that will no doubt prove a great source of strength after they graduate.

    • Major

      Major

      Design your own learning from a choice of 496 major combinations. Instead of having their learning forced upon them, students explore and identify what they really want to study by proactively selecting and formulating their own learning.

  • Diffendorfer Memorial Hall

    The first comprehensive student hall established in Japan.
    Our student-led activities are also brimming with free dialogue and diversity.

    About this place

    • Diversity

      Diversity

      The free atmosphere encourages students to expand their thinking and inspires new thoughts and ideas on a daily basis. The hall’s Religious Center and open fireplace, student clubrooms and auditorium celebrate the diversity of ICU.

    • Activity

      Activity

      You can see students practicing after school or in their free time in the newly soundproofed music rooms and student clubrooms. The auditorium is also the perfect venue for orchestra recitals and plays.

  • Dormitories

    Student dormitories run primarily by the students themselves.
    Through communal living, students learn to respect others and to share responsibilities.

    About this place

    • Quality of life

      Quality of life

      Dormitory living is a great environment for promoting dialogue. All dormitory students participate in the monthly dormitory meeting where decisions are made about the running of the hall. In the meetings, students debate ways to improve daily life in the dormitories. Dormitory practices are also determined through consultation between the University and students.

    • Living and Learning

      Living and Learning

      In our educational dormitories, where students from diverse backgrounds come together to live under one roof, students learn, through proactive dialogue, to respect and share values cultivated through different languages, cultures and religions. They make lifelong friends and gain the necessary grounding to play an active role in the world.

    Lawn Area

    The green Quadrangle (courtyard) extends expansively under the blue sky.
    The Quadrangle was expanded to the Arts and Sciences Hall in 2023.

    The grass courtyard in front of the main building is a place to relax and a place to learn outside the classroom. The completion of the Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall has enabled us to create a new Quadrangle courtyard flanked by buildings on all four sides. This area will undoubtedly become a place for many students to experience chance encounters, gain fresh knowledge, and challenge their values.

    Troyer Memorial Arts and Sciences Hall

    A space for liberal arts that facilitates the meeting of minds across diverse academic fields.

    Along with the natural sciences laboratories, which have inherited the functions of the Science Hall, the new building houses ICU’s largest classrooms and multidisciplinary research bases. Many students and faculty members visit this building for a variety of different purposes. It has been meticulously and ingeniously designed to promote chance encounters and exchanges.

    University Hall

    Our tablet-style chairs facilitate free movement and learning.
    Our dialogue-oriented small class groups promote a stimulating learning experience.

    The current University Hall building originally housed the Mitaka Research Institute for the Nakajima Aircraft Company. Today, the building is used for peaceful purposes and has become a campus symbol and the place where students study from the moment they enter the University. Students can move their tablet-style chairs, equipped with an armrest and small desk, freely around the classroom, which makes it possible to provide dialogue-oriented, small-group education on a daily basis. It is a great environment for helping students develop strong critical thinking skills.

    Diffendorfer Memorial Hall

    Located between the University Hall and the University Chapel, the student hall is the place where people naturally come to gather.
    It serves as a hub for free and diverse student activities, ICU style.

    Affectionately known as the “D Building” by many ICU students, the Diffendorfer Memorial Hall East Wing was completed in 1958 and is named in honor of Dr. Ralph E. Diffendorfer, who contributed greatly to the founding of ICU. In recognition of the building’s value as the first true student hall to be conceived in Japan, the building was designated as a national tangible cultural property in 2022. While the large-scale renovations carried out in 2021 created a new barrier-free environment, they also respected the original design so the building remains as familiar and popular with ICU students as ever before.

    Dormitories

    Our “Educational Dormitory” nurtures the ability to thrive in a global society by promoting dialogue with students brought up with different values.

    The dormitories accommodate roughly 30% of the student body or over 900 students, who hail from a wide variety of different backgrounds across Japan and from other countries. Students who grew up in different environments proactively manage their communal living through dialogue, and learn to respect human rights and diversity and the importance of sharing and delegating responsibilities. The fact that some graduates refer their dormitory mates as their “second family” is testament to the close-knit nature of those four precious years at the University.

    Stoires

    Hear from current students and ICU graduates active in various fields worldwide.

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