Go Forward

The goal of the Meiji University Graduate School of Law is to produce the skilled professionals to lead Japan’s legal community in the 21st century.

Indeed, Meiji University itself has its roots in the Law School. It was founded in 1881 when Tatsuo Kishimoto and Kozo Miyagi returned from their studies in France and established the Meiji Law School together with Misao Yashiro. Since when, this esteemed institution has maintained a consistently stellar faculty and trained skilled legal professionals for more than 120 years, always with a focus on forging careers independent of government power. We are proud to be the alma mater of Japan’s first female legal professional and have since seen many young women follow in her footsteps.

This outstanding tradition is passed from generation to generation at Meiji University, and we offer a curriculum of nurturing legal experts based squarely on our founding principles of rights, liberty, independence and self-government, firm in the belief that those sentiments are just as important for the legal profession in the 21st century as ever before.

The goals of the Graduate School of Law are stipulated in Article 2 of its codes:

The goals of the Meiji University Graduate School of Law are to instill in students the deep compassion, high sense of ethics and creative thinking deemed suitable for the legal profession; to provide students with broad general education and highly specialized legal knowledge; and to offer practical education needed to improve students’ ability to solve legal problems, thereby developing students into legal professionals with the outstanding qualities and skills needed to make a contribution to society and the international community.