Founded in 1900, Takushoku University is a private university in Tokyo. The main campus is in the Bunky身 district and a satellite campus is in Hachi身ji city.
Originally named the Taiwan Associaton School, the university was founded to contribute to the development of Taiwan. It was renamed as the Oriental Association Vocational School in 1907, before gaining its current name in 1918. Takushoku translates as "development and industrialisation" as well as "colonisation", referring to the overseas colonies, such as Taiwan and Korea, that Japan had and intended to industrialise at the time.
At the end of the Second World War, the university was dissolved by the government due to its strong support for militarism, but reopened later.
Today the university has over 750 international students. The five faculties are commerce, political science and economics, foreign languages, international studies and engineering.
The graduate schools are economics, commerce, engineering, language education, international cooperation studies and local government.
The university also includes the Institute of World Studies, the only university think tank for international relations and security in Japan.
The karate club was founded in about 1924, out of which has come many prominent karate instructors and competitors.
Notable alumni include Japanese football player Makoto Sugimoto, Canadian Olympic judo competitor Doug Rogers and TV actor/singer/comedian George Tokoro.
Chancellors of the university have included former Minister of Defence Satoshi Morimoto and former prime ministers Taro Katsura and Yasuhiro Nakasone.
Margaret Thatcher received an honorary doctorate from Takushoku University.
