the university has seven faculties and eight graduate schools with a total of around 10,000 Japanese students and 500 international students from Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Oceania.

It is involved in the Top Global University Project,[1] selected by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), which aims to improve education in Japanese universities in order to increase global recognition and compete with the rest of the world.

[2] The hub of the university at the time of foundation was the Fifth High School, which was a center for higher learning in western Japan during the Meiji period and the university began with six departments, with an enrollment of about 1,100 students.

Although the university was founded during the Taishō period (1912–1926), it has earlier roots in Saishunkan (再春館) established on September in 1756 as Han school of Kumamoto Domain and Banjien (藩滋園) established on July in 1756 by Shigekata Hosokawa, who was a Japanese samurai daimyō of the Edo period.

The university has about 10,000 students enrolled in its undergraduate and graduate programs.