Program Overview

About Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

APU was established in April 2000 under the principals of “freedom, peace, and humanity”, “international mutual understanding” and “the future shape of the Asia Pacific region” thanks to the cooperation of Oita Prefecture, Beppu City, and many more supporters in Japan and around the world. APU is currently home to over 5,700 students from approximately 80 different countries and regions.

Many economies throughout Asia are experiencing rapid growth and forging ahead with globalization. It is inevitable too that the Japanese society and business also push ahead with globalization. It is precisely for this reason that the Japanese business sector demands ambitious and globally-minded graduates with the ability to stand their ground in tough negotiations in a multicultural and multilingual environment.

With 2,600 international students making up almost half of our student body, and a 50% international faculty, the multilingual and multicultural APU learning environment, combined with our students’ ambition and desire to grow, is unique not only in Japan but indeed in the entire world. APU has adopted an educational system unprecedented in Japan including a spring/fall enrollment system, a dual language curriculum allowing students to take undergraduate courses in either Japanese or English, and a 1300-room international dormitory that also serves as a venue for international exchange.

We at APU aim to be a university that can contribute, now and forever, to the realization of a future where the Asia Pacific region can develop as a peaceful and harmonious society. For this to happen, we can’t afford to be complacent about our current position, but instead we must continue to further improve our ongoing contribution to education, research and society.

Our hope is that APU will be a place where the young future leaders from countries and regions throughout the world will come to study together, live together, and understand each other's cultures and ways of life, in pursuit of goals which are common to all mankind.

About Beppu

Beppu is located in the central part of Oita, on the coast of Beppu Bay faces the sea, with Mt. Tsurumi and the rest of the Tsurumi Volcanoes in the rear. Hot water gushes at many spots in the city. Beppu ranks first in gush volume in Japan and is in a high place in the world in the number of sources and the variety of chemical properties. The Beppu-onsen Spa consists of eight hot spring areas including Hamawaki, Beppu, Kankaiji, Myoban and Kannawa, which are collectively called "Beppu Hatto". In addition, there are many modern spa resorts also supplied from the rich sources in those areas.

On the outskirts of Beppu are comfortable resort areas with many leisure activity facilities such as the Takasaki Shizen-dobutsu-en(Mt. Takasaki Monkey Land Natural Park) featuring a specifies of monkey native of Japan designated as a Natural Monument and Lake Shidaka-ko amid Mt. Tsurumi-dake, Mt. Yufu-dake and other mountains.

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Academic

Click Here for course information for exchange students.

Term date

• Host Institutions usually organize orientation activities for exchange students, with some mandatory, which take place 1-2 weeks before the start of the term. You should refer to the acceptance package and pay attention to the expected arrival or pick-up dates specified by your host institution.
• You should only depart after finishing all the final examinations (including resits) since host institutions will not make special arrangement for taking any examinations other than scheduled.
• Please CLICK HERE for more information on host institution’s term dates.