The curriculum of the JEA program consists of the following parts. The number indicated in parentheses shows the number of credits students need to take before graduation. In principle, 2 credits are granted for each semester-long course.

In order to graduate from the University of Tokyo, a student must earn 76 credits in the Senior Division of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Foreign Languages (10 credits): Courses on Japanese or other languages. In principle, students are not allowed to take courses on English or their native language. Students should consult the Program Director before enrolling in language courses.

Advanced Liberal Arts (4 credits): Three introductory courses to the academic fields in the Department of Arts and Sciences, namely, Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Area Studies, and Social Sciences, will be provided in English under the course title “Liberal Arts for Advanced Students.” In addition, there are other courses that are conducted in Japanese.

JEA Core Courses (12 credits): Core courses especially arranged for JEA senior students. Students are required to take 4 (8 credits) out of 6 core courses which offer advanced, essential knowledge in issues related to Japan and East Asia.

In addition, students are required to take “Supervised Readings I” and “Supervised Readings II” (4 credits in total) in their 7th and 8th semesters (in their 4th year). “Supervised Readings” are designed to assist students in writing their graduation thesis. Students are required to participate in a mid-term workshop where they will present on their progress and receive feedback from professors.

Elective courses (22 credits): These courses deal with various aspects and topics about Japan, East Asia, and the global society from the approaches of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Area Studies, or Social Sciences, which aims at broadening and deepening the knowledge and understanding of Japan in East Asia. JEA offers at least seven elective courses each semester.

Other courses (18 credits): As for the remaining 18 credits, students can take courses offered by any of the senior division programs at Komaba as well as other faculties in the University of Tokyo (in order to take a course offered by other faculties, a student must obtain official approval from the course instructor). Students, for example, can take two JEA courses and two courses from the Japanese Intercultural Studies major at the Department of Arts and Sciences, and two courses from the Faculty of Economics (or any other department) at the University of Tokyo.

Senior Thesis (10 credits): Students are required to submit an academic thesis. Each student will have an advisor for his or her thesis.

Please also visit the JEA homepage.

The table below can be used to obtain course descriptions from the University of Tokyo online course catalog, which can be accessed using the following link (https://catalog.he.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index).
(Please note that the information is subject to change.)

¹ Students should consult the Program Director before enrolling in language courses.
² Students can take courses outside of the JEA program by obtaining permission from the respective programs (courses), departments or faculties.
³ Courses offered in a semester may be divided into two terms. Students can enroll in a term course which carries 1 credit for each term