Keio University

Key facts

Checked against the sources listed at the bottom of this page on 7 November 2026.

About Keio University

Keio University traces its start to 1858, when Yukichi Fukuzawa founded a school for Dutch studies in Edo, today’s Tokyo.^[1] It is a private research university located in Minato, Tokyo.^[6]

The university has 10 undergraduate faculties and 14 graduate schools on 6 major campuses in the Tokyo region.^[1] The historic Mita Campus is in Minato-ku, Tokyo; the Hiyoshi Campus is in Yokohama, Kanagawa.^[5] Keio reports about 34,000 university students, a student-to-faculty ratio of about 14 and 12 student dormitories.^[1]

Keio also names about 2,200 international students from 84 countries and regions and 355 international partner institutions (AY 2025).^[1]

How is Keio University ranked?

In the QS World University Rankings 2027, published on 18 June 2026, Keio University is 213th in the world (215th in the previous edition), in the top 14.1% of the 1,504 institutions ranked. Of the 41 Japanese institutions in the ranking, Keio is 10th.^[2]

Keio highlights two indicators in particular: employer reputation (50th in the world, 5th in Japan) and employment outcomes (84th in the world, 2nd in Japan).^[2] In the top-15 table that Hiroshima University published for Japan, Waseda University is shown at =201 and Keio at =213, with the equals sign marking ties.^[8] Rankings differ by publisher and year, so treat one position as one view. How we compile rankings.

What can you study at Keio University?

The ten undergraduate faculties are Letters, Economics, Law, Business and Commerce, Medicine, Science and Technology, Policy Management, Environment and Information Studies, Nursing and Medical Care, and Pharmacy.^[3]

Two undergraduate degrees can be completed entirely in English:^[4]

• PEARL (Program in Economics for Alliances, Research, and Leadership) in the Faculty of Economics: a four-year English-language economics programme for September entry, with an admission quota of about 100 students, leading to a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.^[9]
• GIGA (Global Information and Governance Academic) at the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), through the Faculties of Policy Management and of Environment and Information Studies. More than 600 courses are offered in the two faculties, 20% of them in English, and a BA can be earned entirely in English.^[10]

Keio lists 20 programmes in total where a degree can be earned in English (as of June 2026), including master’s and doctoral programmes in several graduate schools and a one-year LL.M. in Global Legal Practice.^[7] The other undergraduate faculties teach mostly in Japanese and require a high level of Japanese.^[4]

How much does Keio University cost in AY 2026?

These are the amounts in Keio’s AY 2026 fee table for undergraduate faculties. The first-year total includes a one-off admission fee of ¥200,000, a registration fee of ¥70,000, experiment or practical-training fees in some faculties and small fees for the student government and health mutual aid association. The Faculty of Environment and Information Studies appears in the same table with the same tuition (¥1,170,000) and facilities fee (¥330,000) as Policy Management.^[3]

The table does not show a separate rate for international students. Keio revises the registration fee, tuition, facilities fee and experiment fee each year on a sliding scale tied to the pay rises of national civil servants, so later years can cost more.^[3]

Other costs and funding

The PEARL application guidebook for September 2026 entry states an application fee of ¥35,000 that is not refundable, and names ¥1,268,350 as the annual academic fees for PEARL in AY 2025.^[11] Keio says its scholarship fund is ¥24 billion, the largest in Japan, and lists internal scholarships for privately financed international students, the “Design the Future” Award (full academic fees plus a monthly living allowance and a one-off payment) and external scholarships from public bodies such as the Japanese education ministry (MEXT) and JASSO.^[12] GIGA advertises full-ride scholarships for international students before enrolment.^[10] For rent and living costs in Tokyo, see our Japan guide and the Study in Japan guide.

How do you apply to Keio University?

International applicants to an undergraduate degree have three main routes, and the route decides the language, the documents and the calendar.^[4]

• PEARL (Economics, in English): entry is in September. The page for September 2027 entry says the selection rests only on submitted materials with no interview, and the application must be written in English. Applicants submit IB Diploma results (or predicted grades) or SAT scores, plus TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic scores.^[9]
• GIGA (Policy Management or Environment and Information Studies, in English): admission runs through the Winter AO. No Japanese proficiency or visit to Japan is required, and the application is fully online.^[10]
• Ryugakusei Nyushi (international-student admission in Japanese): for Letters, Economics, Law, Business and Commerce, Science and Technology and the School of Medicine, taught mostly in Japanese.^[4]

We give no deadlines here because they change every year and differ by programme. Check the current guidebook of your programme on Keio’s admissions pages before you start.^[4]

Which language level do you need?

For the English-taught PEARL programme, all applicants, including native English speakers, must submit TOEFL iBT or IELTS Academic scores. The guidebook for September 2026 entry sets no cut-off score, accepts no home-edition tests and no superscores.^[11] Check the guidebook of your own intake, because rules can change.

For the Japanese-taught undergraduate faculties, Keio says that most courses are taught in Japanese and a high level of Japanese proficiency is required.^[4] The pages we read do not state a required JLPT level or exam score for these routes, so ask the Keio admissions office or read the current guidebook.

For GIGA, no Japanese proficiency is required for admission.^[10]

More about studying in Japan

• Japan: best universities
• Study in Japan: complete guide
• Cost of Studying Abroad
• International Student Scholarships
• University Ranking Methodology

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