Faculty of Policy Studies Overview

The Faculty of Policy Studies was established in April 2007. Here, we aim to train students capable of rational analysis that goes beyond the borders of existing academic disciplines, and of taking practical actions in order to help resolve various social issues by implementing policies. To do so, the research and education in this department is carried out by researchers from a variety of social sciences, including law, international relations, political science, economics, and business studies. The program has the following three distinctive features: 1. Small class sizes through seminars from the first year; 2. International education through advanced language classes and study abroad programs; and 3. Policy and civil service seminars to support students aiming for joining the civil service. Additionally, during the course of their four-year education, students will acquire a deep sense of insight based on multiple academic viewpoints as well as a high level of expertise for actual practice in society.

Faculty of Policy Studies is comprised of two departments: the Department of Policy Studies and the Department of Global and Asian Policy Studies.

The Department of Policy Studies

The Department of Policy Studies aims to foster those who have the ability to look at a new generational change and the power to think, act, and critically analyze existing paradigms to tackle contemporary social problems at home and abroad from various integrated interdisciplinary perspectives and also who can contribute to the creation of an essentially sustainable civil society.

The Department of Policy Studies is further divided into the following two Courses.

Politics and Economics

In this Course, students will gain knowledge of political and economic aspects of a society by breaking them down to component factors, They will be engaging in multifaceted analysis to learn the essence of political decisions in a modern state and the relationship between laws and civic life. The program aims to train students who can contribute to the creation of new public spaces by considering public policies historically, normatively, and empirically.

Local Community and Management

In this Course, students will explore issues that are universal to local communities and local public organizations, developing the ability to design appropriate forms of governments industries, and welfare services at various local levels. The program aims to train students to acquire abilities to contribute to building autonomous, self-reliant, and sustainable local communities as well as to take practical actions in resolving organizational issues.

The Department of Global and Asian Policy Studies

The Department of Global and Asian Policy Studies aims to foster those who have the ability to look at a new generational change and the power to discover and consider various issues facing the international community and to find policy solutions, especially through the learning of the politics, economy, and laws of Western and Asian countries.

Graduate School of Governance Overview

The Graduate School of Governance was established in April 2011.
This school trains advanced public human resources with the skills to discover issues, design policies as resolutions, and then implement said policies. Here, education and research are carried out in a collaborative effort between disciplines, based on the core areas of political science, public administration, economics, business, and legal studies. Various issues such as the local environment, the development of the economy in Asian society, and community revitalization policies are studied in an interdisciplinary and multifaceted fashion as a way to address policy concerns more practically.

Education at the Graduate School of Governance does not rely on the conventional method of a single faculty member guiding students from admission to graduation, rather, it is unique in that it uses a guidance framework of multiple faculty members. In order to approach research topics from multiple directions and to provide attentive research guidance, the framework consists of a main and assistant supervising full-time research staff members for both early and later stages of the program. Courses are taught by faculty from diverse research areas, allowing for multiple approaches to a single social issue and multifaceted research.

Master's Degree Program

The Graduate School of Governance (Master’s Degree Program) aims to cultivate highly-qualified human resources to play active role in public matters, that is, highly-qualified professionals and researchers who internationally and interdisciplinary bear education and research activities and put policies designed by themselves into practice, and also have abilities of finding out the issues accepted worldwide, and planning and evaluating policies, with high level of academic ethics.

Ph. D. Degree Program

The Graduate School of Governance (Ph.D. Degree Program) aims not only to cultivate highly-qualified professionals for public matters, but also autonomous researchers who can contribute to both domestic and global societies by making the best of demonstrating their knowledge and skills with high level of the capabilities of “Think and Act”.