Once a year, graduates of Doshisha are invited to pay a return visit to the campus to participate in Doshisha University Homecoming Day. On this day, alumni are able to walk freely throughout the campus and tour the university’s facilities, and participate in various functions and activities. Alumni are encouraged to invite family and friends to join them in a return visit to Doshisha University.

November 8, 2009 (Sunday)
Doshisha University Imadegawa Campus

A circle of friendly interchange held together by graduates
Doshisha’s alumni network even extends overseas

The Alumni Association is comprised of members who graduated from Doshisha Junior High School, Doshisha Senior High School, Doshisha Kori Junior and Senior High Schools, Doshisha International Junior and Senior High Schools, Doshisha University, or Doshisha Graduate School. It is declared in Article 2 of the Alumni Association Bylaws that “the purpose of this Association shall be to foster and deepen friendship among alumni members, and strengthen the relationship between Doshisha and alumni members, as well as provide assistance for Doshisha’s growth and development.” The Association seeks to systematically maintain friendly interchange among the alumni as well as cultivate connections between Doshisha and the alumni. At present, the Alumni Association is made up of forty-seven branches and thirty-seven clubs with a membership of more than 350,000 Doshisha graduates who are actively engaged in society in Japan and abroad. The Association also has nine overseas branches located in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, Brazil, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Indonesia. Furthermore, efforts are being made to enrich and strengthen collaborative ties between the Alumni Association and various groups of the university and faculties, professional organizations, and prefectural branches with their associated clubs,. Based upon the foundations built up among these various groups and organizations, the energy and vitality of the entire Alumni Association can be brought together to maintain an even closer relationship between the members of the Alumni Association and Doshisha, their alma mater.

The fifteen students that made up Doshisha’s first graduating class graduated in 1879, with the establishment of the Alumni Society coming in 1885. This was the origin of the present-day Alumni Association some 123 years ago. Joseph Hardy Neesima, the founder of Doshisha, died at the age of forty-six in Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture. A memorial service was held for him at the Doshisha Church on January 28, 1890. Following the service, graduates of Doshisha held a gathering at Saami in Maruyama Park, Kyoto. Following the first gathering, all the alumni of Doshisha, under the name of the Alumni Association, resolved to be united in their efforts to carry on the wishes of Joseph Hardy Neesima to foster and develop Doshisha. These members drew up a detailed charter and clearly established the direction the Association should follow.