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Yamaguchi Prefectural University (YPU) is in the city of Yamaguchi in the western part of Japan¡¯s main island, established in 1975 as a non-profit public university and becoming coeducational in 1996.

The university has 1,300 students and 120 full-time teaching staff over three faculties, five departments and two postgraduate courses. The faculties are the international culture faculty, the faculty of social welfare and the faculty of nursing and nutrition.

YPU offers a special programme for students coming to Japan for the first time, called Yamaguchi Abroad. Its curriculum includes Japanese language study, the traditional arts of flower arrangement and tea ceremony, courses in English about Japanese culture and society, and four courses that make up the Yamaguchi Studies programme.

Yamaguchi Studies is comprised of a collection of four courses covering the history, culture, crafts and people of Yamaguchi. Each course features a combination of in-class and on-location parts, taking students into local culture and history.

The university also offers an international exchange programme for students and staff as well as a three-week Global Student Exchange programme in the summer.

The university is well connected to the main cities of Japan: it is one and a half hours by plane or approximately five hours by bullet train from Tokyo. It takes three hours to get to Kyoto via bullet train. It is about half an hour from Fukuoka by bullet train.

The city of Yamaguchi is connected to Kyushu by a bridge that runs over the Kamon Straights.