Waseda University has within its holdings many important tangible and intangible cultural assets, including a large number of books and works of art from a variety fields. These valuable objects are held in a number of locations. Among them are our library, which holds two national treasures and five important cultural assets (187 separate items), the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, which has an enormous collection of over 100,000 theatrical objects, the Aizu Museum, which focuses on collecting Asian art, as well as archaeological and folk materials, and the Waseda University Archives, which investigates and preserves the history of Waseda University and the heritage left behind by Waseda’s founder, Shigenobu Okuma.

In addition, Waseda produces people talented in various aspects of the humanities, culture, film and theater arts, and many of our alumni are active in these fields. Waseda is also fortunate enough to be situated in a location rich with cultural activities and equipped with a number of outstanding facilities. This allows us to offer Waseda’s free and dynamic culture to the world. It could be said that, within this kind of environment, Waseda University is bringing together at a very high level both the elements required and the potential necessary for various cultural projects to flourish.

At the Cultural Planning Section, our goal is to vigorously support Waseda’s cultural activities. To that end, we work to strengthen and reinforce Waseda’s presence both inside and outside the university, while playing a central role in presenting the university’s cultural offerings to those outside the university. We also seek to organize and support activities aimed at the joint creation and ownership of “knowledge based on partnerships between various agencies connected to our cultural programs.