The rapid changes in the world brought about by globalism and highly industrialized society make the future increasingly unclear and spur social instability. What shape can the humanities and social sciences take that will allow us to explore the nature of ‘humans’ and ‘human society’ and use our discoveries to envision a new, stable, and humanized form of technologically advanced society? In an attempt to answer this fundamental question, the Graduate School of Arts and Letters will undergo a reorganization starting in April of 2019.
Four current departments
- Humane Studies
- Linguistic Studies
- Historical Studies
- Human Sciences
Three new departments
- Japanese Studies
- Aiming to take research on Japan to the next level, with an emphasis put on globalization and multidisciplinarity.
- Global Humanities
- Exploring Asian and European cultures from a variety of perspectives to benefit human society.
- Integrated Human Sciences
- Bringing together theoretical and empirical research in pioneering studies on human beings.
Key Guiding Principles of the Reorganization
To the present, The Graduate School of Arts and Letters has been defined by the following characteristics:
- Success in increasing interest towards Japan and all things Japanese and attracting growing numbers of foreign students
- A high potential to contribute to society in Programs like the Program of Practical Religious Studies (spiritual care worker training program)
- Rapid integration of the humanities and arts with sciences in numerous fields, including applied ethics, museum/cultural heritage studies, environment and disaster risk reduction, big data processing
These key strengths of the GSAL form the core of its restructuring, which implements three basic principles:
Educational Goals
Education in the humanities and social sciences means studying humans and human society from multiple perspectives — in the process our students acquire advanced foreign language proficiency and flexible thinking. Our goal is to foster high-level professionals and specialists capable of discovering and solving the various problems of contemporary society in the globalized world.
Master’s program
Master’s students pursue specific research inquiries while acquiring broad academic knowledge in their specialty fields. Our goal is to train highly educated professionals able to utilize their knowledge of the humanities and social sciences for the good of human society.
Doctoral program
Doctoral students master cross-disciplinary creative thinking and the ability to act on a global level, even as they continue to develop professional research capabilities in their specialized fields. As researchers and high-level professionals they will transcend the boundaries of academia.
※The GSAL is currently in the process of reorganization. The information above might change.
