Bunkasai Japan
明治大学

Meiji University 🇰🇷 🇹🇼

A 410,000-volume manga library and a free museum of Edo-period crime and punishment.

Meiji is the university most guidebooks skip, which is a mistake. Three minutes from Ochanomizu Station you get a free museum of Edo-period crime and punishment, one of the largest manga collections open to the public in Japan, and a law school that trained the lawyers who defended Korea's independence activists.

Liberty Tower at Meiji University's Surugadai campus
Photo: Kakidai / CC BY-SA 4.0 / source
Key facts
Nearest station
Surugadai: Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi) 3 min. Izumi: Meidaimae (Keio) 5 min
Open in Google Maps ↗
Normal-day visits
The museum and manga library are open to the public; lecture buildings are for students.
Photos
Follow the museum's photo rules.
Festival
Meidaisai: Fri, Oct 30 – Sun, Nov 1
Festival details →
Meiji University ↗

Last updated: Sep 15, 2026

Why visit

  • The Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library is one of the largest manga collections open to the public.
  • The Meiji University Museum's Criminal Materials section shows real Edo-period restraints, free of charge.
  • Strong ties to Korean and Taiwanese history that most guidebooks never mention.

History worth knowing

Korea's 'human-rights lawyer troika'

Before the war, three Korean graduates of Meiji's law faculty (Heo Heon, Kim Byeong-ro and Lee In) defended independence activists for free. After 1945 two of them became Korea's first Chief Justice and first Justice Minister.

Taiwan's self-rule movement

Lin Cheng-lu (Meiji Law, 1914) co-founded the Taiwanese students' association in Tokyo and edited the magazine Taiwan Youth. Five of the 52 core members of the Taiwan Cultural Association were Meiji alumni.

Manga at a university

Meiji studies pop culture academically and is building a Tokyo International Manga Library on the Surugadai campus.

Your country's connection

🇰🇷
Korea
Alma mater of the three lawyers who defended independence activists.
🇹🇼
Taiwan
Lin Cheng-lu and other pioneers of Taiwanese self-rule studied here.

What to see on campus

  • Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures
    Day pass 330 yen. Parts of the collection are moving to a new building between April and September 2026; check before you go.
  • Meiji University Museum (Criminal Materials) free
    Surugadai campus. Free. Over 100,000 visitors a year. Labels are mostly in Japanese.
  • Liberty Tower free
    The 23-storey campus tower above Ochanomizu.

Nearby to combine

  • Jimbocho: Tokyo's used-book district, a few minutes on foot. 📍
  • Kanda Myojin: Historic shrine known to anime fans from Love Live!, about 10 minutes on foot. 📍
  • Akihabara: About 15 minutes on foot. 📍

Visitor rules

  • The festival (Meidaisai) is on the Izumi campus, not Surugadai.
  • The museum and library are open to the public on normal days; the library charges a small fee.
  • Anime fans: the 'Surugadai University' in Yama no Susume is a different school, in Saitama.

Etiquette →

Plan your visit

🏨 Tokyo hotels on Rakuten Travel

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