The university was founded in the last year of the Taishō period (1926) by merging the three Buddhist colleges.

The concept for the university began when five doctors—Junjiro Takakusu, Masaharu Anesaki, Eun Maeda, Senshō Murakami and Masataro Sawayanagi—who were leaders of Buddhist society in Japan, proposed creating a Buddhist university union.

It has a one-year program in which up to 40 overseas students are admitted each year to a special course.

This prepares them for enrollment in undergraduate or graduate programs at Japanese universities.

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