SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS
Based in Kyoto, Japan, Doshisha Business School places the values of conscience at the heart of its educational offerings. Tim Banerjee Dhoul offers an introduction to the newly accredited school’s history and outlook
HISTORY Doshisha University was established in 1875 by Joseph Hardy Neesima with the aim of offering “education guided by conscience”. Neesima believed that education in Japan emphasised intellectual development more than the cultivation of the mind and his goal for the institution was to develop people who would be “the conscience of a nation”. Indeed, the word doshisha means “a community created by those who share the same aspiration”. Today, the university consists of 15 faculties and centres, as well as 18 graduate schools. Doshisha Business School (DBS) opened in 2004.
LOCATION
COURSES English and Japanese-language MBA programmes were both launched at DBS in 2009. The two-year, English-language global MBA was then strengthened, with a dedicated faculty and expanded offerings, in 2014. Alongside seven foundational subjects in the MBA at DBS, the programme’s core curriculum encompasses two ‘perspective subjects’, entitled Business and society in the global context and Responsible leadership in the global context . Electives are then grouped into four areas, of which three reflect DBS’s stated fields of focus: sustainability and green business; culture and creativity; and business in Asia.
DBS is located in the historic city of Kyoto, in the southern-central region of Kansai on Japan’s main island. Kansai is centred around the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe and has a combined population of some 20 million. Kansai is a hub of business and industry, with a large number of manufacturers, R&D centres and high-tech science parks. Kyoto, meanwhile, is home to renowned global corporations such as Omron, Kyocera and Nintendo. However, the country’s former capital city is also a cultural linchpin, boasting 17 Unesco World Heritage Sites.
34 | Ambition FEBRUARY 2024
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