Seminars

From 3rd year, you will cultivate deeper knowledge and understanding of your learning field by taking seminars. You will choose a seminar based on your learning interests, and create a senior paper in 4th year.

History and Culture

Public Policy

#Social Policy #Education and Development
How do governments determine how to allocate public resources for the benefit of its citizens? Students will study the policymaking process, and consider the interaction of governments, the international community, and NGO/NPOs. The purpose of the seminar process is for students to develop the knowledge and skills required to examine various international and/or domestic cases of policy creation and implementation and evaluate the effectiveness of such policies.


Prof. MACDONALD Laurence

Philosophy and Globalization

#Philosophy #Intercultural Ethics #Global Justice
"What are the ethical consequences of changes that Globalization refers to?" In this seminar, students will explore a set of philosophical issues (including moral, political, and epistemic). In addition, they will study the intersection of epistemology and democracy by exploring issues that involve the role epistemic considerations play in our understanding and evaluation of political institutions.



Prof. SINCLAIR Robert

Modern Japanese History

#History #Wikipedia #Monarchy and Public Education in Japanese History
In this seminar, students will learn a lot about modern Japanese history by engaging with Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. They first choose a topic of modern Japanese history that interests them, collect/read scholarly materials on their topic, and write/edit a Wikipedia page on their topic. In the second half, you will conduct original research based on historical documents of your choice.


Lecturer YOSHIE Hirokazu

Sociology with Real Case Studies

#Sociology #Ethnicity and Identity #Migration
This seminar aims to enhance the knowledge of sociology with real case studies. The conduct of this seminar is student-centric, in which the learning content (social concepts, what kind of research methodologies) is organic depending on the student enrolment. Students will choose their research topics based on their interests, and look at them from the lenses of ethnicity, class, and gender, as well as the intersection/s among these.


Lecturer CHAN Alex

International Relations and Politics

Japan-Korea Relations

#Korea #Japan-Korea Foreign Policy Making
In this seminar, students focus on the post-war history of South Korea and Japan-Korea relations from various perspectives and contexts. In the latter half, you will write a senior paper by learning various issues using research methods in international relations.





Prof. KOIDE Minoru

The Crisis of Democracy

#Citizenship and Democracy #Global Civil Society
"Why does democracy create its enemies from within?" In this seminar, students study political and social theories/thoughts on democracy: in particular, the issue of "the crisis of democracy." "Democracy" is not only a matter of a governmental system, but also of the people's actions, behavior, and even "way of life" in modern society. The discussion topics would vary such as rationalized society and the irrationality of the people.


Prof. YAMADA Ryusaku

Decision Making in International Relations

#International  Bargaining #Global Governance #Game Theory
Students will study the concept of rational decision making which is underlying many ideas of bargain and more generally rational choice theory. This seminar assists students in the development of their own research generally, by dealing with an interconnected set of issues facing researchers: the research question, the value of the comparative method in explaining political phenomena, and so on.


Prof. LENZ Hartmut

Global Environmental Politics

#Climate Change #Environmental Policy Networks
"Why is international environmental cooperation so hard to achieve?" This seminar is for students who are interested in environmental problems and policies, sustainable development, poverty and inequality, and so on. Students will study key strands of sustainable development and environmental political research.



Assoc Prof. KOLI Anar

United Nations

#United Nations #Global Approaches to Peace
How to improve the protection of human rights? What measures the UN should undertake to boost the implementation of the SDGs? How the global climate change institutions can be strengthened? What are the challenges of Global Governance? Students will study and discuss the challenges in the field of peacebuilding, human rights, and potential reforms in the UN.


Prof. POPOVSKI Vesselin

International Peace Studies

#Political Science #Incentives #International Cooperation
In this seminar, students will learn how to find a research topic, how to design a research plan, and how to conduct a research activity in an academically rigorous way. In the first half, students will develop their own research topics and research questions. Then, they will write a senior paper on the topic in the second half.



Prof. EMMANUEL Nikolas

International Peace Studies

#International Relations #Global Economic Governance
Students will conduct their own research projects by learning materials and issues associated with designing research projects. 


Prof. LUCKHURST Jonathan

Economics and Business Administration

Business Analytics

#Management Science #Operations Research
The main goal of this seminar is to develop an understanding of how analytics tools can be used for important decisions business leaders make. Students will cultivate programming and analyzing skills by conducting research based on their own hypotheses using Python to arrange and analyze a huge amount of data, and analyzing the decision-making strategy of a company.


Prof. OZTURK U. Aytun

Business and Economics

#Finance #Economics #Marketing
This seminar is for students who are interested in the fields of business and finance. Students will formulate their own research interests by studying various business topics and cases such as entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, investment, and financial markets.



Prof. WANG Yungchih George

Global Economy and Statistics

#Economic Statistics #Ripple Effects #GDP
The main objective of this seminar is to foster independent learners who can identify the issue and propose creative solutions to socio-economic-related problems based on the substantial knowledge and analytical skills gained in the seminar.
In Seminar I, students will focus on economic growth, integration, and ripple effects. In Seminar II, they will use the GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) model to analyze the topics.


Prof. SUGIMOTO Ichiro

International Development and Economics

#Development Economics #Poverty #Labor
"What are the issues that still need to be addressed and how can we realize a world where no one is left behind?" In this seminar, students will explore key issues relevant to the developing world and the lives of the world's poor. In particular, students will analyze development issues from an applied microeconomic perspective, and the topics covered include (but are not limited to) poverty, education, labor, migration, and risk management in developing countries.


Assoc Prof. UTSUMI Tomoko

Liberal Arts

Mathematics and Programming

#Python #Mathmatics #Website Design #Mobile Apps
This seminar focuses on programming using Python. In the first half, students will analyze various algorithms and improve their programming skills and ability of logical thinking by solving mathematical puzzles such as the 8 queens problem. In the second half, the students will research their own topics such as one of the mathematical puzzles, website design, and creation of mobile apps.


Assoc Prof. UCHIYAMA Tomohiro