MESSAGE From PRESIDENT SUNAO ONUMA

Creating New Beauty and Culture

Sunao Onuma, President

Bunka Women’s University was first established as the Bunka Women’s Junior College in 1950 under Bunka Gakuen, an educational foundation that dates back to 1923. Since our founding, we have engaged in comprehensive education and research in fashion and other related fields. For more than half a century, we have offered a unique education and research system that is consistently ahead of the times because the philosophy behind the founding of our institute is “Creating New Beauty and Culture” and because we view lifestyles as an important field of academic inquiry and explore how to provide the “utility and beauty” which human beings truly need. Over the years, we have expanded our offerings and created both master’s and doctoral programs, thus establishing a comprehensive system for the study and research of fashion and lifestyle-related fields.

In recent years, we have further improved our school’s educational environment by developing an intelligent campus with state-of-the-art facilities. In the area of information, we also have created the Fashion Resource Center which gathers, analyzes, and makes available all kinds of fashion-related information, including textiles and visuals as well as academic and business information. We have built an international fashion information network that, in addition to the Fashion Resource Center, also includes our library and the Bunka Gakuen Costume Museum which boasts world-renowned articles in its collection.

The 21st century has been named the “age of individuality and sensibilities.” Design related to fashion, lifestyle, and culture is an expression of ourselves as human beings, and how we live as human beings will be important in fashion and lifestyle-related fields which should prove to be the core of such an age. We think it is important that people enrich their minds, affirm their individuality, and refine themselves as human beings. From this perspective, Bunka Women’s University places priority on educating the whole person and aims to train up women who can play leadership roles with their high-level knowledge and techniques in their given fields of specialization. Because it concentrates on creative fields, Bunka Women’s University has developed a unique curriculum which respects, draws out, and maximizes the individuality and diversity of each student. Bunka Women’s University is “a place for study and research that enhances individuality.”

Since the early days of our school, we have enjoyed an active exchange with overseas institutions through fashion-related education and design activities, and we receive a large number of international students mainly from Japan’s neighboring nations. Boasting a network of affiliated overseas universities that is expanding every year as well as a credit transfer system, we are energetically engaged in student exchange and academic and research tie-ups. As the only Japanese member of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI), Bunka Women’s University held the IFFTI 2005 Annual Conference in November 2005. The International Exchange Center serves as the focal point for study abroad advisory services, admissions support for international students, and exchange activities with our affiliated schools.

Bunka Women’s University has the unique characteristic of being an “international urban university” because its main campus is located in Shinjuku and it has built up over many years an international exchange network concerning fashion.

I invite each of you to develop your talents and individuality and to launch a career in the international community as a woman who leads the era in her field.