Department of Policy Studies: Special Program for International Students

The faculty has a special curriculum for international students, matching their initial Japanese proficiency level. Even for students beginning with no Japanese language proficiency, graduation is possible in four years.

1. When international students first enter the Faculty of Policy Studies, they take Japanese placement tests and are placed in either beginner, intermediate, or upper-level classes. Beginner-level students study Japanese for one and a half years in the Academic Japanese Program, learning basic grammar and vocabulary and technical terms necessary for their academic studies.
2. From the second year, while continuing to take Japanese classes, international students also start taking compulsory departmental courses.
3. In the third and fourth year, students will choose to major in one of the three research fields, international policy, public policy, or environmental policy, and join a seminar.
4. Students complete and write a graduation thesis in Japanese in their fourth year.