The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

SOAS was an "ear-opener" even for a student with an international background like myself: standing beneath the staircase spiralling up inside the central tower, you could hear dozens of languages whirling around you. A leisurely browse of the huge presential library invited students to drift in and out of worlds unfamiliar. I would recommend anyone with interests in area studies, anthropology, art history or Asian languages to apply to SOAS - with the caveat that it is now (2020) in an existential crisis and may soon change beyond recognition.

My experience is relative to a MA in Japanese Studies. If you're yet to start studying Japanese (either as an undergraduate or graduate student), you might enjoy what SOAS has to offer.

As someone with limited background information on Japanese history and literature, I thought this MA would allow me to strengthen and deepen my knowledge before moving to a Ph.D. 

However, I cannot think of one truly illuminating or useful course I have followed. Everything was done in such a generic and superficial way, it could have only been useful as introductory courses for UG students, or very unsure and uninformed MA students.

Their language courses seem to bring virtually everyone to a pretty high level (and they can be fairly demanding too), and they are possibly the one redeeming quality of the institution unless your level of Japanese is already N2 or above.