Athénée Français (アテネ・フランセ)

Joseph Cotte, a lecturer at the Imperial University of Tokyo, began teaching French literature in January 1913 on the premises of the Tokyo School of Foreign Languages, under the name "Cours Supérieur"; the teaching became the Athénée Français the following year. When the number of students passed three thousand in 1954, an annexe was built on the school's present site and the English section moved into it. In April 1962 the present building replaced that annexe.

It was enlarged afterwards. In 1964 a second basement level was added and the audiovisual classes of the CREDIF began. In May 1970 the completion of a fourth storey and a tower saw the birth of the cultural centre. In 1973 works enlarged the research office, the recording room and the students' waiting room.

An earthquake-resistance survey carried out in 2008 led to reinforcement works, done with Atelier U from September 2009 to February 2010. Ahead of the school's hundredth anniversary, celebrated on 21 January 2013, a competition open only to French architects living in Japan selected the CRC firm, which carried out the interior fit-out and the renovation.

Takamasa Yoshizaka designed the 1962 building, which received the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize.

The thirty-five classrooms run from the second basement to the fourth storey, and corridors of different colours mark the levels. The second basement holds the language laboratory and the first basement the students' hall. The library, on the ground floor, has thirty-six seats and shelving designed by Yoshizaka. The fourth storey holds a large classroom and the auditorium. The top of the tower once housed a gallery.

The building houses a language school that teaches French and English and also offers classical-language courses. The auditorium is used for lectures and graduation ceremonies.

The cultural centre, at first the school's international-exchange department, screens films from around the world as a cinematheque and invites filmmakers for lectures, symposia and workshops. Since October 2013 a company separate from the school has run it as a film club.

The Athénée Français is a working school. The public comes in for the cultural centre's screenings, on the fourth storey, and the school opens its classes to paid visits during limited periods, in fifty-minute sessions, on registration at the desk or by telephone. The library is reserved for students. The school and the cultural centre's desk are closed on Sundays.

The school is a seven-minute walk from JR Ochanomizu station, by the Ochanomizubashi exit.