Early history The origins of Sophia University could be traced to 1549 when
Saint Francis Xavier, a prominent member and co-founder of the Society of Jesus, arrived in Japan to spread Christianity. In his letters to his fellow Jesuits, he had expressed hopes of establishing a university in Japan. During the so-called
Kirishitan period of Japanese history, the Catholic Church had been responsible for establishing and administering educational institutions in Japan called
Collegios and
Seminarios, serving as bridges between the
East and
West. The establishment of the university only began to take place more than 400 years from St. Francis Xavier's arrival in Japan. In 1903, three Jesuit priests from Europe came to Japan to continue the missionary work of the Church and to help establish Sophia University. One of the founders, Fr. Joseph Dahlmann, SJ from Germany, who had come to Japan via India, had listened to the requests of Catholics in the country, who expressed their desires to construct a Catholic university to serve as the cultural and spiritual base of the Church's missionary operations in Japan. Dahlmann heeded the requests and sent a proposal to the then-
Bishop of Rome,
Pope Pius X, at the
Holy See in Rome. In 1905, Dahlmann was granted a private audience with the Pope, who promised to assign the Society of Jesus to create and administer a Catholic university in Japan. In Dahlmann's
Latin memoirs regarding the encounter with Pius, he recounted that he spoke as follows: "
Habebitis collegium in Japonica, magnam universitatem (in English: "You (plural) will have in Japan a college that is a great university".). On that same year, the then-Bishop of
Portland, Maine in the United States,
William H. O'Connell, was appointed by the Pope to serve as a special ambassador of the
Vatican to
Emperor Meiji in Japan. O'Connell was also tasked to survey the situation in Japan. When he was granted an audience with Emperor Meiji, he had ascertained the education policy directions of the
Japanese Ministry of Education, and reported to officials at the Holy See regarding the possible establishment of a Catholic university in Japan. At the 25th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus in held in Rome in September 1906, Pius X issued a formal written statement to the Jesuits to establish a Catholic university in Japan. Thus, the delegates at the Congregation voted unanimously in favour of the Pope's commands, and the first concrete steps were taken to prepare a university institution in the East.
Founding Sophia University was founded by
Jesuits in 1913. It opened with departments of
German Literature, Philosophy and Commerce, headed by its founder Fr. Hermann Hoffmann, SJ (1864–1937) as its first official president. In 1932, a small group of Sophia University students refused to salute the war dead at
Yasukuni Shrine in the presence of a
Japanese military attache, saying it violated their
religious beliefs. The military attache was withdrawn from Sophia as a result of this incident, damaging the university's reputation in the eyes of the government of the
Japanese Empire. The
Archbishop of Tokyo intervened in the standoff by permitting Catholic students to salute the war dead, after which many Sophia students, as well as Hermann Hoffmann himself, participated in rites at Yasukuni. The
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples later issued the
Pluries Instanterque in 1936, which encouraged
Catholics to attend
Shinto shrines as a
patriotic gesture; the Vatican re-issued this document after the war in 1951.
Hermann Heuvers served as the university's second president from 1937 until 1941.
Post-war growth Sophia University continued to grow as it increased the number of academic departments, faculty members and students, in addition to advancing its international focus by establishing an exchange program. Many of its students studied at
Georgetown University in the United States as early as 1935. Sophia's junior college was established in 1973, followed by the opening of Sophia Community College in 1976.
21st century With the founding of the Faculty of Liberal Arts in 2006, Sophia University presently holds 27 departments in its eight faculties. Its current president is Yoshiaki Terumichi. Toshiaki Koso serves as head of its board of directors. Since 2008, the Global Leadership Program was started for students from four
Jesuit universities in
East Asia:
Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines,
Fu Jen Catholic University in
Taiwan,
Sogang University in
South Korea, and Sophia University in Japan. In 2016 the university reached out to the four Jesuit junior-senior high schools in Japan, joining them in the Sophia College Corporation to help them pass on the Jesuit charism to their lay faculty through workshops and other assistance. These schools are
Sophia-Fukuoka,
Eiko Gakuen,
Hiroshima Gakuin, and
Rokko School. In 2019,
Pope Francis visited Sophia University as a part of his 2019 pastoral tour. This was the first time in 38 years that a pope visited Sophia University. == Campuses ==