[6] Keio traces its history to 1858 when Fukuzawa Yukichi, who had studied the Western educational system at Brown University in the United States, started to teach Dutch while he was a guest of the Okudaira family.

While Keio's initial identity was that of a private school of Western studies, it expanded and established its first university faculty in 1890.

[7] Keio University Research Institute at SFC (KRIS) has joined the MIT and the French INRIA in hosting the international W3C.

[9] Keio University (慶應義塾大学, Keiō Gijuku Daigaku) was first established in 1858 as a School of Western studies located in one of the mansion houses at Tsukiji by founder Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Keio University's root is considered to be the Han school for Kokugaku studies, named Shinshu Kan established in 1796.

[12] It moved to its current location in 1871, established a Medical school in 1873, along with the university department of Economics, Law and Literacy studies in 1890.

[citation needed] In 2006, a paper was published in the research journal Science with an undergraduate as its first listed author.

Another visit in 1922 included physicist Albert Einstein, who presented a special lecture on the theory of relativity.

[18] China provided the most international students with 1,016, followed by South Korea (436), France (66), Taiwan (51), the United States (36), Indonesia (34), and Germany (29).

[19] The interest of Keio's students in baseball stretches back to the early years of the 20th century.

There are annually many matches between the two universities in several sports, such as baseball, rowing, rugby, lacrosse, track and field, American football, association football, aikido, karate, basketball, tennis, swimming, fencing, figure skating, ice hockey, and field hockey.

[27][28] In January 2020, it was reported that a former member of the school president's secretarial staff had installed a camera in a female toilet stall on the Mita campus, filming over a thousand videos over 3 months.

[29][30] Keio ranks 53rd in the world in the Times Higher Education's Alma Mater Index.

[citation needed] There have been four presidents of Japan Medical Association related to this university (two alumni and two professors).

[62] Webometrics (2008) also ranks Keio University as 3rd in Japan, 11th in Asia, and 208th in the world for quantity and quality of web presence and link visibility.

In addition, the total amount of assets under management was approximately 109 billion yen in 2010, composed mainly of cash, deposits with banks and marketable securities.

[76] Keio University has ten undergraduate faculties, with each operating independently and offering educational and research activities.

The faculties, with a planned annual number of enrolled first-year students in parentheses, are: Keio has fourteen graduate schools.

Keio's Media Centers, with combined holdings of over 4.58 million books and publications, are one of the largest academic information storehouses in the country.

Keio alumni include Japanese prime ministers Shigeru Ishiba (2024–current), Junichiro Koizumi (2001–2006), Ryutaro Hashimoto (1996–1998), and Tsuyoshi Inukai (1931–1932).