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Comparative History

A Time Machine Sets Out through Space and Time
An Exciting World of Knowledge Leading to the Future with an Eye on the Past

Comparative history covers all past human activities that have occurred on our vast globe. Humans explore history in response to a strong instinct to understand their roots. During that endeavor, we discover solutions to the problems people faced in past eras.

During the current era of globalization, the need to uncover the diverse cultures of humanity while looking for a trajectory of Japan in this world has only grown more urgent.

Comparative history is based on the three regional pillars of Japanese history, Asian history, and Western history. This program seeks to paint a new picture of world history by comparing regions and eras in various ways and moving through history in vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions.

Objective: A Regional Crossover

The program’s goal is to view history from a comparative perspective using two methods. The first method is to clarify interactions between ethnic groups and cultures. The world has been shaped by a variety of different contacts between Japan, China, Korea, Europe, the Islamic region, and so on. The second method is to make comparisons based on themes. Some phenomena, such as festivals and families, are shared throughout the world and across the ages. By comparing these phenomena, we can bring into focus the shared issues of humanity, as well as the characteristics of specific regions and eras. To attain perspective on such comparisons, it is vital to interact with people from many different regions. Therefore, in addition to friendships with exchange students, going abroad is a way to gain positive and informative experiences and insights.

Major career options include working for a wide range of private corporations in the fields of finance, the media and IT, as well as the civil service, teaching and continuing on to graduate school.

Features: Taking on the Challenges of Writing, Languages and Objects

Although most materials used in the study of history exist in written form, many other sources are also examined, including archeological sites, buildings, paintings, photographs, tools used in everyday life and so on. Historians collect, organize and analyze a wide range of different historical materials, assemble a set of clarified facts, and reconsider their logic over and over again to ensure that it is coherent.

Historians also work in different languages. With proficiency in multiple languages, you can enjoy reading historical materials in the original text, including classical Chinese, cursive Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin and others.

Between twenty and thirty students are taught in eight seminars, based on a complete terakoya (Japanese private educational institutions during the Edo Period) methodology. You will be amazed to find that after the first year even obscure historical materials no longer scare you. Take trips around the world without leaving the classroom as you reproduce society in the different eras of each region by deciphering historical materials.

Comparative History