Kanazawa University originated in 1862 as a smallpox vaccination center, and became a university in 1949. It aims to be “a research university dedicated to education, while opening up its doors to both local and global society,” and strives to contribute to 1) opening up a new 21st century era, and 2) promoting world peace and the continuous development of mankind.

The university offers highly versatile undergraduate program through 17 Schools. Also, there are 7 graduate schools and 1 united graduate school. The university also takes pride in the most advanced research as one of the leaders in the globalization of Japanese universities. In 2014, MEXT selected Kanazawa University for the ‘Top Global University Project.’ In 2016, we opted to be among the “Excellent Global Universities” category financed by the Japanese government. In 2017, we were selected for the “World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI)” by MEXT.

As of August 2018, Kanazawa University has over 180 institutional-level and 70　departmental-level partners. It actively exchanges students and researchers with partner universities, including double-degree and twinning programs and graduate programs especially modeled for government-sponsored students from Indonesia and Vietnam. The university strongly promotes student exchanges with partners in Russia, China, Thailand, etc. Research collaborations include the environmental measurement in the Angkor ruins, cultural resource studies of the Mayan civilization, research on chronic health conditions caused by dioxin exposure in Vietnam, and more.