The Japan in East Asia Program aims to provide students with a wide range of social science and humanities courses to develop an advanced understanding of Japanese/East Asian politics, economy, society and culture in a global context. The program is organized so that students will be able to receive a Bachelor's degree by taking classes that are taught in English. The curriculum reflects sixty years of experience and continuous improvement and innovation in liberal arts education at the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Inter-disciplinary Cultural Studies Approach emphasizes the study of cultures from a comparative and diversified perspective. Classes will be conducted using themes such as modernity, post-modernity and aesthetics which stretch over various disciplines, including, but not limited to, philosophy, literature and linguistics. Since the focus is on Japan in the context of East Asia, rather than in isolation, we encourage students to consider this approach a useful tool in examining the cultures of an increasingly globalized world.

The Area Studies Approach poses academic questions from both geographical and historical viewpoints regarding the nation-states that students are studying, or perhaps where they spent their childhood, by drawing comparisons with alternative perspectives and transnational influences. Courses with cross-cutting themes will be offered in order to help students gain a broad-ranging, cosmopolitan knowledge of Japan, East Asia, and the world.

The Social Sciences Approach mobilizes contemporary theoretical and empirical discussions from an array of fields, including politics, international relations, economics, sociology, and legal studies. The complex social phenomena in Japan and East Asia, both current and historical, will be extensively and critically examined.

For more detailed information about our curriculum, please refer to the following: JEA Senior Division