ページの本文です。

Faculty of Letters and Education

2019年9月4日更新

Culture is a way of life. It is society, and information.
Learn about the world at both the macro and micro levels.

The Faculty of Letters and Education is built upon a core of interest in humans, their cultures and societies, and covers a broad range of research fields. Topics of study include the societies and environments that encompass humans at the macro level, the thoughts and languages that exist at the micro level of individuals, and artistic endeavors such as literature, fine arts, and music and dance.

The faculty’s four departments (Liberal Arts and Humanities, Languages and Culture, Human and Social Sciences, and Performing Arts) offer thirteen specialized education programs. These programs are organized into curricula with a high level of flexibility that allows students to examine a wide range of subjects based on their own interests. Students can deepen their education in a single specialty or study an array of different areas of expertise. By polishing the “mirror” of your specialty—and by combining it with the mirrors of others—you can view the total picture of human society’s complex mixture of truths and falsehoods.

In the current era, with humans and nature intertwined in a complex fashion, it is even more vital to analyze a single phenomenon from multiple angles, and to act based on a shared understanding with many other people. The Faculty of Letters and Education lets students discover the multifaceted “ways of seeing things” (cultures) that permeate every aspect of human life.

History and Wisdom of Humans, Culture and Society of the World

The four departments comprising the Faculty of Letters and Education are Liberal Arts and Humanities, Languages and Culture, Human and Social Sciences, and Performing Arts. Each department offers multiple programs, supplemented by the interdisciplinary Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation program, which crosses the boundaries between departments.

While researching the cultures and societies humans have built up over the long course of history, the Faculty of Letters and Education also provides an education designed to offer students the ability to live in a rapidly globalizing world. Graduates play a wide range of active roles in society, including positions at corporations, governments, schools, universities, research institutions and other organizations.

Diverse Research Fields and Comprehensive Small-Group Instruction

More than anything else, the Faculty of Letters and Education is characterized by its diversity. The range of education and research topics students examine include time periods ranging from antiquity to the present day, Japan and the entire world, and human life from birth to death. Faculties specialize in a wide variety of research fields and methods, from classical Chinese literature written three thousand years ago to social problems in the modern world. It is also easy to select secondary programs in other departments and participate in individual classes.

Another characteristic is a comprehensive level of dedication to small-group instruction. The Faculty of Letters and Education provides a superb student-to-teacher ratio, and some classes have only a handful of students. Students are not able to simply pass by attending lectures, however. Instead, they are expected to prepare fully and participate in lectures and seminars in a self-directed manner. In addition to classroom lessons, some programs incorporate practical training and off-campus research studies.

Choosing Your Main Program

The Faculty of Letters and Education conducts entrance examinations and enrolls students based on department. The system the Liberal Arts and Humanities, Languages and Culture, and Human and Social Sciences departments use has students choose a main program when entering their sophomore year. For the main program, each student selects one course offered in her department or Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation. Students in the Performing Arts department, however, enter a four-year program from their first year that focuses fully on the specialty they are pursuing.

The Faculty of Letters and Education offers first-year students basic and introductory courses designed for specialized fields that they can use to choose their main program. They can examine issues from a wide perspective and in a multifaceted way through these courses, basic lectures on liberal arts education that integrate the humanities and sciences, and so on.

Since the maximum number of students that can select any main program is loosely defined, a student will virtually always be able to enter her desired program. An equable method is applied to select students in cases if the maximum number is significantly exceeded, or when the conditions for a specific program are not met.

Selecting Your Program Combination

The main program a student selects becomes the primary axis around which that student’s specialized studies revolve. The student then selects a second program to combine with her main program. To focus on studying their main program, students can select related supplemental programs. A student focusing on interdisciplinary research, on the other hand, may choose a secondary program related to a different academic discipline. Students can also take a third program either in the Faculty of Letters and Education or in another faculty. Performing Arts students can take on third programs as well.

Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation Program and Secondary Japanese-Language Education Program

Students taking the main Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation program can combine it with a secondary/interdisciplinary program in their own department to study in an interdisciplinary fashion. Students enrolled in the Liberal Arts and Humanities, Languages and Culture, or Human and Social Sciences departments can select the Global Studies for Intercultural Cooperation interdisciplinary program as their second program.

The Languages and Culture department also offers Japanese-language education as a secondary program, and students learn Japanese-language education designed for those who are not native Japanese speakers as well as how to communicate properly in Japanese. This diverse range of programs allows students to build educational programs that match their own interests and goals, which they can apply to their careers.