About the GENSHA (Graduate School of Language and Society)

What Kind of People We Want to Train (Official Diploma Policy)

The Graduate School of Language and Society (GENSHA) aims to produce expert researchers and educators with creative knowledge who can contribute to the development of humanistic issues. It also aims to train highly skilled professionals who have the ability to solve problems in contemporary society with deep humanistic culture through research and education on languages, society, cultures, and so on. To achieve this goal, we provide two divisions: the "Language and Society Division (1st division)" and the "Japanese Language/Japanese Culture Division (2nd division)" and organize the curricula.

In the Master's program (1st division), students who have been enrolled for a given period of time, earned prescribed credits, and passed the final examination for the Master's thesis shall be awarded a Master's degree. The name of the degree is "Master of Arts." The Master's thesis is a proof of students' having extensive culture knowledge on the general fields of the humanities such as languages, schools of thoughts, literatures, and arts, and the special knowledge in the their chosen fields.

In the Master's program (2nd division), students who have been enrolled for a given period of time, earned prescribed credits, and passed the final examination for the Master's thesis shall be awarded a Master's degree. The name of the degree is "Master of Arts." The Master's thesis should address one of the following areas: Japanese language education, Japanese linguistics, or Comparative Cultural Studies. It is proof of students' having extensive knowledge on Japanese linguistics and Japanese language education, and special knowledge in their chosen field.

In the doctoral program, both divisions aim to train people who have profound expert knowledge, high ability to conduct their research, and who can make a unique academic contribution in each specialized field. Students who have trained under their advisors' guidance, have been enrolled for a given period of time, earned prescribed credits, and passed the final examination for the doctoral thesis shall be awarded a doctoral degree. The name of the degree is "Ph. D." A Ph. D is proof of students having the ability to engage in research as independent researchers in their own fields.

December 2016