It has great teaching and research, and student intake numbers to be proud of. But there is one thing nobody envies about Kinki University: its name. Perhaps fed up with being the butt of jokes by English speakers, Kinki in Osaka will rename itself Kindai University from April 2016, when it launches a new department offering courses taught in foreign languages — and tries to broaden its international profile. Kindai is a contraction of “Kinki Daigaku,” the university’s official Japanese name. And while “Kinki” refers to the region of Honshu in which the school is located, the English term “kinky” can denote a preference for peculiar sexual behavior. The university … Continue reading Tomohiro Osaki