Academics
Curriculum
Our program aims to help students build practical skills to develop effective policy solutions to real-world social problems. In the first and second years, students acquire academic and critical thinking skills, as well as basic knowledge necessary to study in the core discipline areas of the program.
Project-based learning equips students with skills and experiences critical to gaining more in-depth knowledge and advanced reasoning abilities in preparation for their advanced seminar courses in their third and fourth years, where they write a final graduation thesis based on their original research.
Curriculum Tree
* The semester in which each course is offered and its instructor are subject to change.
Example of Study Path
- 1st YEAR
- In the first semester, students learn basic skills and knowledge for conducting research and writing papers through 4 mandatory courses (“Introduction to Academic Research”, “Academic Writing Skills Ⅰ”, “Information Processing 1” and “Cross Border Policy Issues”). They prepare for their first research project that starts in their second semester (“Introduction to On-site Research 1”).
Vision Building Courses are also available from the first semester.
Students will also take Japanese language courses. We offer 6 different levels, which allow students to learn on a suitable course based on their fluency. - 2nd YEAR
- Students keep working on their research project in groups and conclude it with presentations and a research paper (“Introduction to On-site Research (Summer Session)” and “Introduction to On-site Research 2”). What they learn from this project will lead to their future research.
Advanced lectures on Policy Science are also available for the second-year students or senior.
“Internship Seminar” is a course available for second and third year students who are interested in working in Japan after graduation. It offers an opportunity to join an internship program at a Japanese company. - 3rd YEAR
- Students choose and join a seminar class, in which they will conduct and deepen their own research to finish their graduation thesis (“Policy Seminar 1” and “Policy Seminar 2”).
- 4th YEAR
- They continue working on their research to finish their graduation thesis (“Policy Seminar 3” and “Case Study Seminar”). To support the writing process, there are academic writing skills course that are exclusive for fourth year students (“Thesis Writing I” and “Thesis Writing II”).