Wako University (和光大学, Wakō Daigaku) is a private university in Japan, which is located in Machida, Tokyo. Wako University is part of a comprehensive educational institute called Wako-Gakuen (和光学園) (meaning Wako schools), that includes kindergarten, two elementary schools, junior high school and high school. All schools are located in Tokyo. In fact, the university has direct attached schools, so that people who have attended from the elementary school are relatively wealthy and then they directly go to the university without taking an examination. Wako University was founded in 1966 as a four-year liberal arts institution of higher learning. Wako's founder and first president, Dr. Satoru Umene, was a pioneering educator who led the postwar movement to reform Japanese higher education. From its inception, Wako University has striven to achieve the high ideal of an interdisciplinary learning community open to society and the world at large. Here, faculty and students interact freely, cherishing the clash of values and opinions, and pursue personal and intellectual growth through independent study and research and extracurricular activities.