Developing International Communication

Skills in Japanese Cultural Studies


“Developing International Communication Skills in Japanese Cultural Studies” is an educational program adopted by “Support Program for Improving Graduate School Education” carried out by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Ochanomizu University is one of the most important centers that play a significant role in the field of International Japanese Studies (“Japanese Studies in a Global Perspective”) in Japan. In this field of study, the University has carried out a program “Exploration ＆ Dialogue: Education for Women as Leaders” supported by MEXT’s project, “Initiatives for Attractive Education in Graduate Schools,” and thus far made a number of educational and scholastic achievements, such as symposia and joint seminars in cooperation with overseas universities. On the basis of these achievements and by proactively working on solutions to the problems that we are facing in our endeavors, this educational program is intended to develop and expand further our research and educational capacity in Japanese Studies in a Global Perspective.

　In carrying out this program, we are aware of the following issues:

(1) Taking an active role in a global community naturally requires strong international communication competence. (2) Currently most of the humanities in Japan do not receive international recognition despite their high standards. We assume that the chief reason is the researchers’ poor ability to communicate themselves in international settings. (3) In today’s globalized society, values tend to be so unified as to be one-dimensional. We can propose the Japanese way of thinking as a certainly effective frame of reference to relativize that tendency.

To find a comprehensive solution to these three issues, this educational program is aimed at training graduate students in the humanities to obtain international communication competence, and further fostering the ability, knowledge and intellect that are necessary for them as the communicators of the research results of Japanese cultural studies to make social and cultural contribution in an international community.

More specifically, this program is constituted of the following three pillars:

(a) The “educational experiences in international settings,” such as the “overseas internship” in which students do teaching practicum at overseas universities, and the “academic discussion” in which students have discussion practicum on specialized topics with researchers from foreign countries.. (b)　The “training of communication skills” in which students develop “Japanese Studies Corpus” by making the most efficient use of our available intellectual resources on Japanese studies, and learn the know-how on information communication on a global scale by transmitting the stored information through electronic media. (c)　We have introduced the cluster of “Japanese Cultural Theories” as Minors so that students do not only master their own field of study, but also, from a comprehensive and interdisciplinary viewpoint, obtain a broad and deep understanding of Japanese culture and its mode of thoughts.

This educational program enables students to get internationalized as highly as in the case of studying aboard, while studying in this academic environment that maintains the highest standard of Japanese studies. In other words, by studying at our Graduate School, students can acquire quite sophisticated expertise and internationality.

In today’s international society, it is becoming more natural that men and women equally make a good contribution to their society and culture. It is hence more widely expected that women with strong competence and capacity advance in the workplace ― not only in academic and research institutions in Japan and abroad but also in cultural or international political organizations. We firmly believe that this program will help train students to respond to the demand from the international society.