Kyoto Seika University established its Cartoon Course in the Department of Fine Arts in 1973; the Department of Cartoon & Comic Art in the Faculty of Art in 2000; the Manga Culture Research Institute within the Organization for Human Contact in 2001, and its Faculty of Manga in 2006. As this record clearly shows, KSU has always played a leading role in academic research in the field of manga both in Japan and abroad, based on its research and education activities over the past 30 years. Since its founding in 2001, the Manga Culture Research Institute has pursued diverse academic studies on manga and animation, has actively supported the establishment and operation of the Japan Society for Studies on Cartoon and Comics, and has promoted the establishment of the human and information network that serves as a foundation for research. Takes advantage of all these education and research accomplishments and the respective networks, the International Manga Research Center, which was established in 2006, serves as the conceptual core of the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Its activities have been funded by the national grant development project Open Research Center supplementary funding (MEXT), 2006.