Daito Bunka University

Daito Bunka University (大東文化大学, Daitō Bunka Daigaku^?, lit. Great East Culture University) is a medium-size four-year university with two campuses: one at Itabashi in Tokyo and the other at Higashi Matsuyama in Saitama, Japan. The sports program is strong in rugby and distance running, with the Ekiden (駅伝 えきでん relay road race) team coming fourth in the prestigious January 2009 New Year Hakone Ekiden. Daito Bunka focuses primarily on cultural arts and humanities. It is known as one of the top calligraphy schools in the nation and one of the few universities in Japan to teach Arabic and Urdu.

The original university was established in 1923 as Daito Bunka Gakuin (大東文化学院　だいとうぶんかがくいん Daito Bunka Academy) and was an attempt to found a new school focused upon learning from Asian rather than Western influences. It gradually became associated with the efforts of nationalists and militarists in the grand plan of a Pan-Asiatic Co-Prosperity Sphere (大東亜　だいとうあ), and graduates of the university, well versed in Asian languages and cultures, were seen as ideal colonial experts and administrators.

With defeat in war, Daito graduates petitioned the Occupation authorities to refound the university as a truly Pan-Asian liberal arts school to nurture peace and understanding throughout Asia. The authorities granted this request, and land was provided for the new school in Itabashi Ward, northern Tokyo, with the renamed Tokyo Bunsei University (東京文政大学　とうきょうぶんせいだいがく Tokyo University of Literature and Politics) being founded in 1949. The name eventually reverted to Daito Bunka University in 1953, following the end of the Allied Occupation the previous year.

Daito Bunka University has a sister school in New Zealand: Avondale College, Auckland.

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