Aoyama Gakuin University

, abbreviated AGU, is a Japanese Christian university in Shibuya near Omotesando, Tokyo, Japan. Aoyama Gakuin University is part of a comprehensive educational institute called Aoyama Gakuin, which includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, junior and senior high schools, and a women's junior college. Aoyama Gakuin's history dates from October 1874, when missionaries (Dora E. Schoonmaker, Robert Samuel Maclay, Julius Soper) from the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States established three schools. John Franklin Goucher contributed to the establishment of the university. Canadian Methodist missionary Davidson MacDonald played a role in the establishment of Aoyama Gakuin, and his contribution to the improvement of Japan's educational system is considered an important episode in the early history of Japanese-Canadian relations. The institution took its present form in 1949 when Aoyama Gakuin College was established as a comprehensive university. Aoyama Gakuin University now stands as one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan.