From this sense of mission sprang the idea of founding a law school. They then sought and received the assistance and cooperation of Kojima Korekata^*2, their superior (and later Chief Justice of Japan's Supreme Court), and Doi Michio, President of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
  Thus Kansai Law School made its start as the first law school located in the Kansai area. The founders taught that the law belongs to all citizens, and that, by means of the law, they can and should defend their own rights. This became the origin of the university's academic tradition of nurturing a love of justice and a concern for the protection of the freedom of the individual. Thanks to the support and trust it has won from the general public, our institution has since then steadily developed and diversified.
  In 1905 the institution was granted the title ‘Kansai University,’ and subsequently, in 1922, its main campus was removed to its present more extensive site in Suita (a suburb of Osaka), thus paving the way for later growth.

50th Anniversary

  In consequence of the educational reforms carried out soon after the end of the Second World War, Kansai University was able to avail itself of the new system in order to expand its scope for tuition so as to comprise four faculties: those of Law, Letters, Economics and Commerce.
  Its first Graduate School was established in 1950. Subsequent to this, its Faculty of Engineering was founded in 1958, followed in 1967 by the founding of its Faculty of Sociology. More recently (in 1994), and in response to the requirements of a global community united by access to information made available by electronic processing, a seventh faculty - that of Informatics - was instituted on a further campus, created just outside the dormitory-town of Takatsuki. Finally, its Institute of Foreign Language Education and Research was inaugurated in 2000.

80th Anniversary

  For many decades the Evening Courses were taught on a separate campus, located in the Tenroku area of Osaka, these originally constituting a Night School for students - many of them adults - already in employ. In 1994 the Evening Course was moved to the Senriyama Campus; and, in 2003, the University instituted an innovative 12 hour curriculum, one integrating both day and night courses.
  The University, with its attached senior and junior high schools and kindergarten, has a total student body of thirty thousand. In 2006, Kansai University celebrated the 120th anniversary of its foundation.
  Currently Kansai University has 13 faculties, 12 graduate schools and 3 professional graduate schools.

*1  Gustave Ernie Boissonade de Fontarabie (1825-1910) was, from 1873 to 1895, a legal adviser to the Ministry of Justice of the Meiji Government.

*2  Kojima Korekata (1837-1908) is best remembered for his efforts to maintain the independence of judicature the judiciary after the Otsu Incident had taken place, in 1891. This was an attempt on the life of the then Crown Prince of Russia (later Tsar Nikolai II) made when he was traveling through Otsu (a small town near Kyoto) by Tsuda Sanzo, one of the policemen ordered to guard his safety. In its consternation, and in hopes of averting retaliation by Russia, the Japanese government wanted the accused tried for treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. In spite, however, of strong pressure from both government and public opinion, Kojima Korekata tried the case as an ordinary crime of attempted murder, and sentenced Tsuda to life imprisonment.