The Department of International Studies, a pioneer of international studies education in Japan, was founded in 1986 and celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2025. Building upon this tradition, the department continually points the way towards new educational content in international studies that reflects the changing international environment.

Since its inception, the department has pursued multi-disciplinary education by emphasizing on peace, justice, and diversity as rubrics of international studies. Scholars of cultural studies, economics, law and political science offer a range of challenging courses that cut across fields of specialization.

In the first semester of the second year, all students choose a concentration (senko) from six areas of study: the three multi-disciplinary fields of Comparative Culture, International and Comparative Economics, and Comparative Law and Political Science; and the three inter-disciplinary fields of Peace Studies, Environmental Studies, and Multicultural Society. The chosen concentration serves as a center of gravity for students to organize their study plans in the subsequent semesters. The department also provides a wide range of regional studies classes, in which scholars of Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas offer multidisciplinary lectures that transcend academic disciplines.

Well-developed English skills are important to studying international issues. The department’s English for International Studies (EIS; senmon gaikokugo) program offers such training. While these English language classes are particularly concentrated in the first year, students continue this training through the third year, with the aim of becoming able to take English-based academic courses effectively and comfortably. These academic courses are taught by the Faculty’s professors and visiting faculty from the University of California and allow our students to work closely with exchange students from around the world.

In the first and second years, our students take IT-related courses and elementary classes in a second foreign language (French, German, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean, Arabic, etc.) that are offered by the Center for Liberal Arts. They can also expand their liberal arts background with the Center’s Meiji Gakuin General Education Courses.

In addition to the lecture classes above, seminars are another important pillar in the department’s academic training. With about ten members each, seminar classes create an environment in which students and faculty members work closely together as they deeply study a specific theme.

In the first-year seminars, students gain basic academic skills and fundamental knowledge for college life. Then, starting from the fourth semester (the fall of the second grade), all students belong to a senior seminar (zemi) that lasts until graduation.  This seminar is a venue for deepening one’s understanding of a particular academic discipline and pursuing themes of one’s interest with like-minded students.

Our curriculum also places great importance on synergies created by on- and off-campus learning.  The Department provides a rich menu of off-campus activities, including study-abroad programs at partner universities, local and overseas internships, and Field Studies that supplement regular seminar classes.

In the seminars of their last year, students complete a graduation thesis. This is the culmination of the experiences and knowledge they have gained from the department’s open-minded intellectual environment.