This course introduces students to the study of cultural/social anthropology. Topics covered include the intellectual history and sub-disciplines of anthropology, fieldwork (methods), language, economic systems and exchange, politics and power, family and kinship systems, ethnicity, gender, religion, health and medicine, and globalization.

Culture is very much a combination of lifestyle and art. This course will explore the development and transition of Japanese aesthetic in lifestyle from prehistoric Jomon Period to today, with special emphasis on the crafts and arts of Edo, Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras. In Japan, there are fine arts, fine crafts, Mingei (the people’s arts and crafts) and design. We will examine how fine art developed from ancient times, and how the traditional crafts and arts appeared in art history, and how Japanese arts and lifestyle transformed with the industrial revolution during the Meiji Era with a newly applied idea of “fine arts”, followed by the emergence of the philosophy of Mingei. We will finish by discussing how art and crafts influence our everyday lifestyle, what it means to us today, and what you think will happen in the future.

This course is designed to give students an introduction to bilateral influence between the East and the West in Art.
(1) The treasures of Shoso-in repository and Buddhist Art in Japan will be focused on. One aim of the course is to encourage students to develop an interest in signs and symbols in Japanese art.
(2) The issue on the cross cultural art history of the book illustrations related to “the Arabian Nights” and “Animal Fables” will be focused on.
Recent topics related to Asian art and the cross cultural art history will be picked up during the course for discussion.
The detailed course schedule will be distributed at the first session.

Photography has become a part of our everyday lives. In fact, few of us leave home without a camera, but how much do we really understand about the history, processes, and power of the photographic image?
This course is designed to give students a firm foundational understanding of the development and history of photography, themes and genres in modern and contemporary photography, and some first-hand experience of the challenges involved in producing a considered photographic image.

Life Science, or biology, encompasses all fields of science associated with the study of living organisms. This course will discuss aspects of biology from many points of view. There will be a discussion of jobs or careers in the biological sciences, i.e. how scientific knowledge is generated, and what kind of jobs can be done by students who study biology.
Students will learn the basic mechanisms by which life and evolution are possible, and the course will also introduce cellular physiology and Neuroscience.
Lectures will also discuss recent and emerging technologies in medicine and healthcare, including pharmaceuticals and gene therapy.

The course provides a basic conceptual framework for students to understand modern investments. Students will get familiar with the investment environment, understand the risk-return relationship, and build some quantitative investment strategies used by traditional portfolio managers. Instruments used to allocate capital and manage risk and to evaluate investments will be discussed during the course. Major topics include Investment environment; Securities, risk and return; Optimal Portfolio Selection; CAPM, Single/Multiple-Factor Models. Overall performance will be assessed based on two problem sets, one investment report and one (take-home) final exam.

As companies and organizations become increasingly international, issues of national culture can often stand in the way of a seamless progression of human resource management (HRM) across national boundaries. The course explores how multinational enterprises (MNEs) are managing their way through this complexity, making strategic choices in international HRM. The course is composed of four topics; (a) recruitment selection and staffing, (b) cross-cultural employee motivation and the global leader, (c) diversity management, and (d) expatriate management in MNEs.

This course introduces organizational behavior(OB). OB is a management field that helps us understand the interactions among individuals, group/team, and structures in shaping behaviors within an organization. Its particular emphasis is on organizational effectiveness as well as employee well-being. This course provides students with theories and applications to facilitate desirable outcomes in the workplace.

This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to the entire integrated marketing communication process. The course will cover a variety of elements in integrated marketing communication and other marketing components. Students will learn how advertising relates to marketing and the specifics of research, setting objectives, strategy, positioning, creative, media, promotions, public relations, and campaigns. Upon completing the course, students will have a better general understanding of the development of the advertising industry, how it works today, and debates about its roles in society.

This lecture introduces the basic algorithms and data structures and those implementation as Java programs to the students taking the lecture. The students learn, in particular, the various types of search algorithms and sorting algorithms.
The students are expected to have knowledge and experience in Java programming in the Eclipse environment, which is not absolute although.

This course focuses on ""to acquire the ability to read and write simple programs"", and positions this subject as an elementary subject for aiming to acquire programming skills in specialized field.
We will proceed classes with the goal of acquiring the following three items:
1.Know programming.

Students learn the basic knowledge of programming and language, especially consider ""Why programming is necessary?"" in their research field. Students are aware of your learning goals clearly.

2.Learning basic programming skills.

In each learning item, by reading the actual programming and modifying (writing) as necessary, students master the programming basic ability to understand the syntax.

3.Learning programming practical skills.

Based on the contents learned in each learning item, students prepare a program of highly utilizable cases. Through the exercise, students experience the programming process of data structure design, programming, debugging, and master the programming practical skills.

Focusing on ""acquiring the ability to read and write simple programs"", it is positioned as an elementary course for the purpose of acquiring programming skills in specialized fields. In this course, the lessons will be advanced with the goal of acquiring the following three items.
1. What is programming?
Learn basic knowledge of programming and language. Think about ""why you need programming"" in your own research area. Be clearly aware of your learning goals.
2. Acquisition of basic programming skills
In each learning item, you will acquire the basic programming ability to understand the syntax by reading the actual program and modifying (writing) as needed.
3. Acquisition of practical programming skills
Based on the content learned in each learning item, select a highly useful case and actually create a program. Through the exercises,

This course focuses on ""to acquire the ability to read and write simple programs"", and positions this subject as an elementary subject for aiming to acquire programming skills in specialized field.
We will proceed classes with the goal of acquiring the following three items:

1. Know programming.

Students learn the basic knowledge of programming and language, especially consider ""Why programming is necessary?"" in their research field. Students are aware of your learning goals clearly.

2. Learning basic programming skills.

In each learning item, by reading the actual programming and modifying (writing) as necessary, students master the programming basic ability to understand the syntax.

3. Learning programming practical skills.

Based on the contents learned in each learning item, students prepare a program of highly utilizable cases. Through the exercise, students experience the programming process of data structure design, programming, debugging, and master the programming practical skills.

This course focuses on ""to acquire the ability to read and write simple programs"", and positions this subject as an elementary subject for aiming to acquire programming skills in specialized field.

We will proceed classes with the goal of acquiring the following three items:

1.Know programming.

Students learn the basic knowledge of programming and language, especially consider ""Why programming is necessary?"" in their research field. Students are aware of your learning goals clearly.

2.Learning basic programming skills.

In each learning item, by reading the actual programming and modifying (writing) as necessary, students master the programming basic ability to understand the syntax.

3.Learning programming practical skills.

Based on the contents learned in each learning item, students prepare a program of highly utilizable cases. Through the exercise, students experience the programming process of data structure design, programming, debugging, and master the programming practical skills.

This course focuses on ""to acquire the ability to read and write simple programs"", and positions this subject as an elementary subject for aiming to acquire programming skills in specialized field.
We will proceed classes with the goal of acquiring the following three items:
1. Know programming.

Students learn the basic knowledge of programming and language, especially consider ""Why programming is necessary?"" in their research field. Students are aware of your learning goals clearly.

2. Learning basic programming skills.

In each learning item, by reading the actual programming and modifying (writing) as necessary, students master the programming basic ability to understand the syntax.

3. Learning programming practical skills.

Based on the contents learned in each learning item, students prepare a program of highly utilizable cases. Through the exercise, students experience the programming process of data structure design, programming, debugging, and master the programming practical skills.

In the 2000s, Southeast Asia have grown remarkably. The ASEAN community, which was established in 2015 is attracting attention as a huge market for 600 million people. We are now seeing Southeast Asian Countries as important business partners. But Southeast Asia is a region of vast complexity-Singular but plural places. So, this class focus on the unique history of these areas, the steps for nation-state building. and the contemporary political economy and society. This course will provide students with opportunities to become acquainted with "Southeast Asian Studies "and learn many diversified histories and contemporary issues. Southeast Asian Studies is a useful tool when students try to capture Southeast Asia from a micro-macro perspective, combining with Development Studies, Global Governance and Gender Framework.

This course will provide an overall comprehension of dramatic progress of economic development in East Asia by taking various point of views including historical, political, socio-cultural and economic perspectives that account for the development. The course will examine such development in light of the different approaches. Special attention will be given to the backgrounds and conditions under which East Asian economies have successfully blended strategies of import-substitution industrialization, export-oriented industrialization, FDI-driven effect and regional economic integration. The role played by government in the process of past economic growth will also be examined. Through the course, participants will understand the key drivers of East Asian economic growth and development in the past 70 years and be acknowledged with where East Asia will be approaching.

This course is an introduction to methods on how to analyze individual decision making based on behavioral economics. Behavioral economics use cognitive and emotional factors in understanding the economic decisions of individuals and societies. From the 1990s, researchers in economics started expanding the scope of their formal (i.e., mathematical) models to encompass some types of behavior that were found in behavioral economics though they were at odds with the standard economic theory.

This course mainly discuss about behavioral decision-making theory. Standard economics usually assume the following two assumptions to analyze individual decision making. First, an individual forms beliefs describing the probabilities of all choices, and after receiving new information, an individual updates his/her beliefs in correct way according to probability theory. (2) An individual acts as if s/he is maximizing an expected utility. However, behavioral economics indicate that people does not behave as like standard economics assumed.

This is an introductory course in development economics. The course focuses on the macroeconomic aspects of international development, such as the meaning and measurement of economic development, growth theories, poverty and income distribution, the role of geography and institutions, fertility and population growth, foreign aid, international trade and trade policy. Students are expected to have taken Introduction to Economics prior to enrolling in this course.

Game theory is a mathematical tool to study strategic interactions that has become a standard analytical tool in several academic disciplines, e.g. in economics, biology and also in political science. Whenever the choices made by two or more decision-makers have an effect on each others' welfare, the interaction between them is game-theoretic in nature. Such conflict situations that are relevant for political science and economics include political elections, the international (nuclear) arms race, and the issue of the voluntary provision of public goods.

Post-war Japanese economy and current issues through the lens of economic theory.

This course introduces students to (i) the measurement and structure of the national economy, (ii) basic macroeconomic concepts (e.g., productivity, output & employment, consumption, saving & investment, long-run economic growth, and business cycles), and (iii) a basic framework for macroeconomic analysis.

Microeconomics is the study of rational choice behavior on the part of individual consumers and firms. In general, economists are interested in how market mechanisms solve complex resource-allocation problems. This course is designed to present a logical and coherent framework in which to organize observed economic phenomena. We will study several economic models in order to explain and predict a wide variety of economic (and sometimes, seemingly non-economic) phenomena. The course presents the basic framework that allows the economist to gain a fundamental understanding of the human puzzle in an economic setting. It also gives essential tools to students who wish to study advanced topics from economic theory in the future.

Students will learn and understand the different economic development courses of the two Koreas, their current situation, and the challenges their economies are facing. To better follow the lectures, students will sometimes need to employ basic economic concepts such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, interest rate, and etc. Those economic terminologies will be explained by the instructor if necessary. After taking this course for one semester, students are expected to better understand the economic issues related to North and South Korea reported in various media sources such as newspapers, news magazines, TV news programs, and etc.

Education is often perceived to have a strong impact on a country’s development. The course will explore development, trends and changes that have taken place in the education systems in developing countries. This course mainly consists of two parts. The first part is designed for students to gain a theoretical understanding of international development and education. The latter part is designed for students to understand education in developing countries at the different levels of the education systems. In addition we will examine education from both historical and international perspectives. This course provides students with an opportunity to construct a substantial foundation in the theories, vocabulary, and issues related to education and development.

In this course, we will analyze and interpret Shakespeare's King Lear from a range of perspectives. A close reading of the text will help students become familiar with the art of Shakespearean language, while questions around such topics as madness, patriarchy, and ""Nature"" will lead students to an understanding of the play in a variety of contexts. We will also pay attention to King Lear in performance, mainly by discussing how film adaptations of the play make changes to what we find on the page. The course is intended for those who did not read any Shakespeare at school, but others are also welcome. There will be no acting sessions in the course, but students will be asked to take turns in reading some of the characters' lines aloud.

This course is intended to explain and find out the clues to major environmental issues that we face today. First, we study basic process and mechanism of natural environment and how living organisms adapt to the environment. Secondly, we learn about the role of semi-natural disturbances on biodiversity conservation. Traditional agricultural practices in Japanese Satoyama and agro-forestry in Indonesia provide some good examples of where people receive natural resources and ecosystem services locally and how energy is flowing in cycle, as well as providing habitat for native species. Such balanced interaction in turn can function as a resilient ecosystem. This concept is called the Ecosystem-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco-DRR). Thirdly, we study the impacts of recent human activities such as over-exploitation of natural resources, industrialization, intensive agriculture and globalization, on ecosystems, wildlife and as well as on our health and safety. Topics will include environmental carrying capacity, chemical pollution and bioaccumulation, soil erosion, global warming, climate change, endangered species, aging society and under-use of local resources problem, impacts of invasive species and genetically modified organisms (GMO), and learn how they are complexly interrelated. Lastly, we find the clue and issues on alternative power/renewable energy usage, such as biomass and geothermal power generation. This course consists of lectures, discussions and assignments.

Climate change issues are discussed in relation to global food and energy security. We examine the effectiveness of crop-based energy production and potential conflicts with food production. How food production and consumption will be impacted by climate change problems and how agricultural production is related to greenhouse gas emissions are explained in the course. We learn lessons from local examples of Japan and the United States.

The international community faces diversified transnational issues such as poverty, refugees, human rights abuse, organized crimes, financial crisis and so on. Who can control such global issues? These issues cannot be understood within the nation-centered narratives anymore. This course provides students with opportunities to become acquainted with "global issues" and learn that many diversified international actors have made efforts to solve these issues. Students will know that the Japanese government, businesses, NGOs and other entities make contributions to the settlement of these issues in cooperation with regional and international institutions, business counterparts and international NGOs. These efforts and social movements by the diversified actors are called 'global governance.' Students will understand how the international community tries to manage 'global governance' today.

Migrant workers and social transformation are seen in Asia today have far-reaching effects on various countries in the world. The subject of migrants, or the global movement of Asian people, is rather sophisticated because this has a close connection with economic, social, cultural and religious problems within it. In understanding such a complicated case, it is necessary to give careful consideration to the relationship between a Sending Country and a Receiving Country in terms of international affairs. For this, the lecture will take up the Historical background of Japanese migrants, ASEAN +3, and furthermore dynamic movement of people today, and phenomena brought by social transformation among countries in Asia.

We will explore experiences of people who had/have crossed between Asia and America through reading a text book, conducting an interview, and writing a research paper.

This course will serve as an introduction to the history of modern Japan. It will survey international as well as domestic factors shaping Japan’s modern development from the early modern period up to the aftermath of the Second World War.

Meiji Japan stood out not only for its early adoption of a written constitution which included the establishment of a parliament, but also for its pursuit of imperialist expansion after centuries of foreign policy abstention. This course will focus on the role of “imperial constitutionalism” as a principle of governance guiding the modern transition of Japan. But it will cover economic, social and cultural developments more broadly as well.

The course will use Andrew Gordon’s A Modern History of Japan, which is particularly strong on social history, as a textbook. Additional readings highlighting further aspects or offering different perspectives will be introduced as the semester proceeds.

During the last 65 years, Japan has never entirely freed itself from the heritage of the Second World War. Irrespective of nationality and political leaning, the existence of Japanese aggression during the 1930s-1940s is well-known, although rarely accompanied by stable factual knowledge or critical contextualization. While some things are unknowable, we will try to expand the knowable; first outlining the history from the 1930s to the postwar period, and then examining some major issues. Of primary importance are negotiations about reparations in the 1950s, the comfort women issue, and the textbook controversy.
The primary focus will be Japan itself and southern areas, especially Southeast Asia. If possible, we will take a field trip to the Yushukan museum in the Yasukuni Shrine.

This course is an overview of the history of modern urban space in Tokyo. We will look into the historical period one by one in each lecture. Finally each student will create a original ""Urban History of Tokyo"" Sugoroku, which is a traditional Japanese board game played with dice.

Tokyo's urban space has various aspects. Its diversity can be understood through learning its history. You can also notice a variety of issues and problems in urban areas of contemporary Japan. The course focuses on the transition of urban spaces, social structure, industrial progress and life-style. We will refer to plenty of visual materials, such as maps, paintings, photos and videos.

Unfortunately, this year's class can not be outing. Teacher will prepare visual materials such as Ukiyoe, postcard and photograph. Also some original road movies are available to study. Finally, through the overview of this class, you will create an original Sugoroku game using these visual materials.

This Course of lectures will focus on human rights in a global society. and also attempt to build up definitions and opinions of human rights and peace with the help of knowledge of the past and current situation as the background of the problems concerned. Considering these situations in international society, they could have a close connection with religious, racial, financial and political factors, etc.. between these. In this respect, in global consciousness, it is necessary for us to consider human rights problems not only with taking an international viewpoint but also with overviewing the internal affairs of the nations concerned.

In this class students will learn how to define and interpret key humanitarian concepts such as human rights, human security and the responsibility to protect. Students will also learn how to define democracy, and study trends in democratization over the last 100 years. Students will learn about the content of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Charter in some detail. We will also consider the strengths and weaknesses of the UN Security Council, and discuss the possibility of UN reform.

Which countries have the best records for respecting human rights, and which countries are the worst abusers of human rights? To address this question, we will look at two of the most respected measures of human rights, the Freedom House surveys of civil and political rights, and the reporting processes of the UN human rights treaty system, and look at how these processes are used to identify human rights abuses in countries such as Japan and Thailand.

We will consider the possibility, as many authors have suggested, that there is a positive and mutually re-enforcing relationship between peace, human rights, and democracy. Looking at previous patterns of democratization, we try to understand why something called the ‘Third Wave’ of democratization took place, and why the momentum behind global democratization has stalled. We evaluate the concept of human security, which some believe is a more helpful concept than that of human rights. Finally, we introduce the issue of humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect, through a case study of the Rwanda genocide.

Data+B103 mining is one of the technology to extract useful information from big data, which will become key technology in big data era.
In this course, the lecture starts from how to clean big data, i.e., data cleaning.
Then, basic statistical analysis methods will be taught followed by Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) which is different from Online Online Transaction Processing (OLTP).
As for the basic algorithm of OLAP, we will learn how to handle Data Cube and some methods to handle it.
Finally, we will learn Frequent Pattern Mining Algorithm which is the most popular algorithm for analyzing big data, including Apriori and FP-growth algorithms. Then we will learn how such methods are used in our society.

Video games have become one of the world’s most lucrative media entertainment forms, grossing more as a global industry in the 21st century than film or television. However, the mass acceptance of video games and the industry's growth into an economically powerful business has also affected us socially, culturally, and aesthetically. In this course, we will study the dynamics of video games from a variety of perspectives, including its historical and technological origins; ontological debates about the nature and necessity of games and play; the flexibility of game aesthetics; types of game genres and narratives; the people who play games both casually and actively; transmedial dimensions of games (particularly in Japan); and how games function in and represent society and culture at large. In addition to readings, we will also play a sample of video games throughout the semester in order to understand a variety of game genres, designs, and intersections with culture and society. As video games have become arguably the most popular form of entertainment in the contemporary moment, we will develop the knowledge and tools to talk about them intelligently and think about them productively. By the end of the course, we will hopefully be able to provide our own answers to questions about what games are made of, why we need them, what rewards and dangers they actually bring, and what their cultural and institutional influence continues to be.

This course examines various aspects of contemporary Japanese society from historical and sociological perspectives. Apart from the widely shared view of Japan as an economic powerhouse and a society of high efficiency, Japanese society often looks something of an enigma, showing notable ambivalence between the homogeneous and the diverse, the traditional and the modern, and the Eastern and the Western. After a historical overview of the modernization process of Japanese society since the late 19th century, this course particularly focuses on five sociological topics, i.e. family, work, ethnicity, welfare, and political ideology. We explore how each of these five topics illuminates the dynamism and diversity of modern and contemporary Japanese society. By doing so, we attempt to disentangle somewhat confusing images of Japan and acquire critical and analytical viewpoints towards modernity, national identity and globalization. Each class proceeds with a lecture style with regular pair/group discussions.

In this course, students will learn modern Japanese economic history from the 17th century through to the 21th century.
The course consists of lectures and presentations. Following on from each three lectures a presentation session by selected groups of students and on assigned topics will be held. Students will also take a final exam at the end of the course.

This course is meant to introduce TAISI students and students from the regular program in the School of Social Sciences to postwar Japanese history and social development.
Issues to be taken up in this course include:

The American Occupation of Japan and impact of the Korean War,
Japanese Overseas Development Assistance in Asia,
Japanese national identity and the 1964 Olympics,
Japan's postwar foreign policy,
Japanese immigration policy,
Gender inequality in Japan,
Bubble period Japan,
Historical memory controversies between Japan and East Asia,
Social innovation in Japan, and
Japan and globalization.

Constitutional law concerns some of the most fundamental questions about our nation, our society, and us as individuals. It is a body of law governed not only by the wording of the text itself, but also by the implementation and interpretation thereof as contained in specific laws, administrative acts, legal judgments, doctrines, etc.
By providing students with the basic “tools” necessary, this course aims to enable students to formulate and develop their own ideas concerning the constitutional issues of Japan.
The lecture will be given in English (complementary explanations will be made in Japanese).Active participation is very important in this course. Try to give your opinion on each subject.

This course deals with major issues on how Japan has been contending with war since the Meiji Restoration. Students will be given the opportunity to examine relevant cases or topics chronologically as well as explore the challenges and the potential of Japanese pacifism based on the preface and Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan in the 21st century.
Students will be encouraged to actively participate in discussions and presentations.

During the postwar era, social and economic changes have led to drastically changed contexts for Japanese women. These changes could be characterized as a second wave of Japanese in which GHQ policy certainly played a role encouraging positive changes enjoyed by Japanese women. Prewar images like “good wife, wise mothers” and “modern girls” gave way to other images, including “education mothers” and the office lady (OL). Today both elderly and young women play important social and economic roles, despite occasional trivialization of their functions. We will examine images and issues related to women as well as relationships between men and women in Japan through academic works and newspaper articles. Students will also examine popular media for images of women.

Welcome to Contemporary Journalism. Do you wonder what real life journalism is like for foreign correspondents in the field? Then take this course to find out.
The class is designed for writers who aim to be international journalists or for people curious about how journalists collect and report the news on the international beat. This is a behind-the-scenes look.
It will focus on Western-style reporting in Japan, Korea, China and South Asia. Issues will include kisha clubs, conflict reporting, freedom of the press, the rise of social media, business journalism and hurdles to foreign reporters. We will also take a look at video journalism and photojournalism.
The basic format is lecture, discussion and question-and-answer. A guest speaker list includes seasoned journalists from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Associate Press and Reuters. They will share their tricks of the trade in getting the story from foreign lands.
The instructor is a working journalist who spent eight years at The Associated Press, based on three continents, including postings in New York, Germany, Japan and Korea. He has reported from about 15 countries, covering everything from plane crashes, earthquakes and the war in Iraq to nuclear tests by North Korea and the recent quality crisis at Toyota Motor Corp.
All classes and coursework, including assignments, will be conducted in English.

Introduction to Journalism is intended to supplement other SILS media studies courses and provide useful background for students thinking of a career in journalism or public relations, or even propaganda.
This course examines the business and practice of print, broadcast and internet journalism in Britain, the US and East Asia. The course combines discussion of big issues in journalism and media studies generally with an examination of workaday journalism and the techniques, problems and adventures that journalists go through to put their story on the page, on TV, radio and the net.
The course has a special focus on the ethics of journalism and on the practice of public relations. We also examine challenges posed by freedom of information activists and look at the quality and integrity of journalism’s own self-examination.
The course looks closely at the work of well-known journalists, past and present, and examines the power and significance of celebrity journalism. In week 15 our focus on individual journalists will be sharpened by a talk given by a guest speaker drawn from the Tokyo press corps.

Constitutionalism is the idea that political power should be limited usually by a written constitution. It is also an established practice in liberal democracies. Modern constitutionalism was invented during the era of the American and French Revolutions. Modern constitutionalism has since been transformed, as activist states emerged in the late 19th century. Recent globalization has once again forced modern constitutionalism to adapt itself to a new environment. This course will examine the basic structures of modern constitutionalism and its transformations. Topics in this course will include bills of rights and government of instruments, popular sovereignty, separation of powers, checks and balances, parliamentary and presidential systems, rule of law, judicial review and control of constitutionality, negative and positive rights, unitarism and federalism, terrorism, and global justice.

Reception of foreign legal system is thought to be an indicator to understand the overall history of Japanese legal system.
The Edo Period is the age of warriors, samurai, in early modern times. The period is said to be the age of indigenous, native law. The Tokugawa Shogunate adopted a national isolation policy for over 200 years. The opening of Japan is the beginning of modern history. The country learned new ideas from Western Europe and accepted their legal system.
In this lecture, we will learn the process of making laws under the influence of Western Europe in modern Japan.

This course will introduce theories of acoustic and auditory phonetics, and demonstrate basic techniques for computational analysis of speech sounds. The course will cover the anatomy and physiology of the speech and auditory organs,physics of speech, speech production and perception, and basic theories of speech recognition and synthesis. The classes will consist of both lectures and also practical sessions where the students will conduct speech analysis. No previous knowledge of computation or programming is necessary, but students need to be able to use basic software such as Word, Excel, etc.

This course will study English phonetics and phonology, dealing with segmental and prosodic aspects of the language. Lectures will focus on the typical characteristics of the sound systems of English in relation to phonetic and phonological theories. This course will focus mainly on theory, but practical pronunciation training will also be included, whenever appropriate, in order to help understanding of the theories. The course is aimed at students who are interested in teaching English as a foreign language. Students will be encouraged to participate during the classes.

Phonology deals with the organization and structure of language sounds. In this course students will learn about the basics of English phonology. The main characteristics of Japanese phonology will also be discussed.

Linguistic expressions typically convey more than one kind of ‘meaning’. This course focuses on how different kinds of meanings are conveyed and how they interact and/or are controlled by other factors, drawing examples mainly from English and Japanese.

Basic concepts to be covered include: reference, sense, and proposition; natural language and logical language; valence and thematic roles; lexical semantics; contextual information; implicature, presupposition, speech act theories; discourse.

Sociolinguistics is a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and society, as they mutually influence each other. This course introduces basic concepts of sociolinguistics and explores both micro and macro sociolinguistic studies, reviewing various cases from the micro interpersonal interaction levels to the macro institutional and societal levels. Topics covered include language and power, thought and representation, ethnography of speaking, language and gender, language change, regional and social variation, multilingualism, language attitudes as well as language policy and language planning issues in various social contexts from around the world. Although concepts of both micro and macro sociolinguistics are introduced, an emphasis will be placed on language policy and language planning issues.

We all know that animals (and even insects) can communicate with each other, but our way of communication is fundamentally different in that it is greatly facilitated by language, whose structure seems species-specific. This course concentrates on this part of human language with special reference to its syntax, a set of rules that govern the way the words in a sentence come together.

The underlying assumption behind the paragraph above is that all human languages in the world are rule-governed and structurally the same at an abstract level, and, in this respect, they contrast sharply with other modes of communication employed by bees, bats, dolphins, etc., which all seem to lack systematic structure that allows users to create an infinite number of novel language expressions. This course thus aims to discover principles that govern this essential aspect of human language and tries to tackle issues such as how child language acquisition takes place and how surface differences among languages may be explained by the notion of parameter.

The course is designed to provide students with the ability to understand and use basic statistical concepts and methods. The beginning of the course explores statistical data summaries, data organization, and how to draw conclusions from data. Additional topics covered include random variables, least-squares regression line, probability rules, point estimation and confidence intervals.

Most people grow up with some aspect of the Disney brand in their lives and have some type of relationship with any number of its films, television shows, subsidiary networks and companies, theme parks, and merchandise. This course will use Disney as a case study to examine the various ways in which we make, manage, consume, and study media in contemporary society. We will explore both the pleasurable and problematic aspects of the history of the Disney animation studio; the particular style and aesthetics of its full animation; the company’s approach to both tradition and progressivism; the relationship of Disney to television and convergent technologies; the geography of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, CA and its many derivations around the world; the cultural significance of its products in relation to race, gender, class, and sexuality; the American ideological imperatives that are reproduced within its various artifacts; the contemporary multimedia conglomerate and brand it has become; and the ways in which the company has adapted to ever-changing digital technologies, platforms, and services.

By closely tracking developments in Washington and foreign policy issues, this course will take a detailed look at the administration of President Donald Trump and the American political scene. Students will learn about Trump and key aspects of his administration’s domestic and foreign policy. The course will include a look at how the distribution of political power in the U.S. Congress affects the administration’s actions. It will also examine how developments abroad affect the president’s decisions.
The course will begin with an examination of Trump’s background and personality, as well as a look at events that have taken place during Trump’s time in office. The course will move forward closely following events as they develop in Washington and elsewhere in the world. Concluding sessions of the class will include discussions about how U.S. policy is made and why the administration’s decisions unfolded the way they did.

Since the 1970s, many countries have been democratized across the world, e.g. in Southern Europe （Spain, Portugal, and Greece）, Latin America （Brazil, Chile, etc.）, East Asia （Korea, Taiwan）, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Africa (South Africa, etc.), Middle East (Tunisia), and so on. Why does the democratization occur in some countries but not in others? Why does the democratic regime survive after democratization in some countries but not in others? In order to answer these questions, this course will explore the determinants of democratization and democratic survival, based on the major theoretical arguments and empirical findings in comparative politics. The course will cover both classic and cutting-edge works in the literature.
The course is divided into three parts. The first part (Week 2-7) explores the determinants of democratization (transition from authoritarian regime to democracy). The second part (Week 8-12) examines the determinants of democratic survival (whether democracy collapses or not after democratization). The third part is for the student presentations, in which students are required to make a group presentation on the case(s) of democratization or democratic survival/collapse of their choice.

This course aims at analyzing :

1. What is the US diplomacy?

US, in contrast to Europe, has distinctive features. What are they?

2. What is the World Order?

The World Order with its origin in 17th Century has gradually changed. In which direction are we moving?

3. Which role the US played to form the World Order?

We are living in the world designed by the US. What was the aim of the US when they drew the basic design of the World Order?

This course intends to provide fundamental knowledge of media history in Japan and Asia from late 19th century to early 21st century, and to discus the historical process of transformation of relations between media, governments and peoples.

This course is designed to acquaint students with the history of western political thought from ancient Greece to the modern times. This course will explore the origins of normative political concepts and their interpretations and evolution over time. By focusing on the works of political theorists from the past, the lecture will provide a historical background for concepts, such as democracy, rights, justice, equality, liberty and freedom. The current framework of these concepts has already been explained to students in the lecture 'Public Philosophy (Political Perspective)' or 'Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory'.
The goal of this course is to encourage students to read classical texts, which are important for understanding the history of the Western civilization and the present-day conceptual framework of political theory. The course also presents various methods of analyzing the conceptual content of past political thought. This methodological reflection will facilitate students developing analytical skills they can use in their future studies on the history of political thought.

How and why were international organizations created/formed and sometimes collapsed? How and why do sovereign states agree to create international institutions and organizations? What has been the political dynamism behind any international organization? As an academic discipline, International Relations (IR) has attempted to answer those questions. Through a longer history of international society, or society of sovereign states, the so-called international organizations were not naturally created. This course will look back the history of Western international society and its global expansion. It will then put such international organizations as the League of Nations and the United Nations (UN) in this historical context. It will particularly focus on the role of Japan in any international organization.

The course is designed to provide fundamental knowledge of International Relations (IR). This class would be an essential pre-requirement for other advanced IR courses. For instance, the instructor will cover key concepts like three-isms in IR theory and strategic interactions, which will empower you to understand/analyze international relations. You will also obtain basic international history and background information that would be necessary to comprehend on-going international conflicts and cooperation.

This course offers a comprehensive and substantial introduction to international relations. There will be an overview of the international history of the last 100 years, taught from a geopolitical perspective. The main theories of international relations are introduced. The core textbook is Joseph Nye and David Welch’s highly regarded Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to Theory and History (any version from the 9th edition onwards would be ok). This text will be supplemented with various other readings.

ODA in Japan was No.1 in the 1990s, but it is going down to No.5 since the 9.11 incident. The Japanese government focuses on peacebuilding after it revised the ODA policy in 2003 according to financial pressure. Japanese policy toward peacebuilding, in a sense, depends on United Nations. For example, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution becomes an important condition when we send Self-defense forces abroad. We will discuss the relationship between Japan and the UN regarding the role of Japanese peacebuilding toward the world peace.

This course provides an introductory survey of Japanese international relations from the mid-19th century to the present day. This covers the opening of the country to the world after its long seclusion, Japan’s expansion into the Asian continent, the road to the Pacific War, an overview of Japan’s position in the Cold War, and, finally, a discussion of post-Cold War dynamics to date. The class pays attention to the development of the wider international political system in discussing the Japanese position. It also focuses on how domestic society interacted with Japanese foreign policy at each period.

This half-year course, designed for English-based degree program students, provides an overview of contemporary Japanese politics. After briefly introducing the historical backgrounds, such as the significance of Meiji Restoration and legacy of postwar reforms, the course will examine the basic governmental structure, evolution of political parties and party system, public policies, as well as national security and foreign relations with other countries. The course will combine weekly lectures by instructors and a set of students' presentations based on individual and/or group research.

The course provides a historical and conceptual overview of neutrality as a national and a structural-security model, that has been part-and-parcel of War and Peace for at least 2500 years. The course uses key texts in neutrality studies including classical Greek writings, sources from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the research of contemporary scholars of International Relations, International Law, Security Studies, and Conflict Resolution. It will touch upon America’s Europe’s and Asia’s experiences with neutrality policy and discuss the “global neutrality regime” that emerged from the intricate treaty system of the late nineteenth century. Finally, the course will examine contemporary forms of neutralist policies in the post-Pax-Americana world order. It will look at the emerging multipolar system of the twenty-first century and, the return of a global security architecture that might or might not be conducive for new neutrals to emerge.

This course seeks to deepen our understanding of postwar relations between Japan and the U.S.
A combination of developments – that we discuss in class – means that the basis of Japanese foreign policy (the U.S.-Japan alliance and free riding on the liberal economic order) is being questioned by some key actors in Japan. Which elements will dominate? Will Japan fundamentally rethink its alliance strategy? Classes will consist of interactive lectures, presentations by students, and group work. A very detailed "weekly schedule" will be provided in class.

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that regards humans as information processing systems and aims to study its mechanism by the scientific method of measurement and observation. In this course, we will learn how basic human cognitive activities (e.g. perception, memory, learning, language comprehension, attention, etc.) are examined, from classic research methods to the latest research technology, such as functional magnetic resonance brain imaging.

This course helps students understand how to compare public policy in different nations and to find out factors responsible for cross-national similarities and differences. Students are also introduced to key theoretical concepts and scientific methodologies for comparative public policy research.

Requirements for this course consist of three parts. First, this course being a seminar rather than a lecture, active participation (not only attendance) in class discussion is essential; hence, students are to be up to date with course readings and well-prepared for class discussion. Second, utilizing the assigned readings and other materials, students are expected to give several oral presentations (handouts required) to respond to an analytical question(s). Third, there is a final exam, which is designed to scrutinize and evaluate your understanding on the contents of the textbook and the in-class discussions.

In this lecture important viewpoints for analyzing the roles of public administration in the contemporary society should be discussed and necessary approaches for the analysis should be introduced. There would be used some examples of industrialized countries such as Japan, USA, UK, Germany so on for explanation.

In this course we will highlight the development of Buddhist thought in Japan. Founded in India in the fifth century BCE, Buddhism was brought to Japan via China and Korea in the sixth century CE. Due to the influence of local structures and beliefs, Buddhism in Japan acquired some particular features which make it distinct from other forms of Buddhism in East and Southeast Asia. Concretely, in this course we will examine the Buddhist teachings that had been influential in Japan at one time in the past, trace the interaction of Buddhism with other religions such as Shinto during the premodern period, and shed light on the process of its development and transformation in the modern age.

This course is an introduction to contemporary sociology for beginners. In this course, the instructor will explain basic concepts in sociology. The knowledge of basic concepts in sociology will enable students to study more advanced topics in sociology.

Sport is central to modern life, influencing everything from national identity to daily conversation. A full understanding of any contemporary society must include a discussion of the role of sport in that society. This course explores the development of sporting culture in Britain, which is of particular interest since so many of the world’s major sports originated in Britain. Through a consideration of the development of sporting culture in Britain, this course will deepen students’ understanding of twenty-first century British society, its values, customs and practices.

This course introduces and explores the variety and richness of the performing arts of the world, to illustrate the diversity of human expression. Areas covered include the ritualistic roots of performance, Japanese and Western theatre, dance, and opera, as well as contemporary performing arts. The general goals in this course are (1) to develop an awareness of, and interest in, various aspects of theatre and (2) to encourage an appreciation of theatrical performance and dramatic literature within diverse social and cultural contexts.