Go Forward

Welcome to the intellectual arena

Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration
USHIMARU Hajime
Professor

"You are now in the most interesting phase in the history of the Japanese economy, and can see it objectively. I would like you to see what happens in the future." These were the first words from a lecturer on the first day of the course when I was studying at graduate school after leaving the city bank where I worked. As you know, when the bubble economy started, the Japanese economy was starting to boom. The lecturer warned about this situation, but I remember that not only the media but also many economists had opinions to suppress it. Given this, a friend of mine bravely challenged the problem and wrote a master's thesis on the bubble economy. Based on the theory of stock price fluctuation, it was an empirical paper that statistically analyzed various numerical data through multivariate analysis. It became clear after a few years that this paper was correct, but what is important here is a research attitude that questions what is now taken for granted and tries to confirm it not only by theory but by some means.

Graduate students, especially working graduate students, tend to take convenient data and ideas and try to prove them by force in order to confirm the hypothesis generated from their experience. They are the same as the media and economists that, during the bubble economy, relied only on convenient data and tone to make claims that lacked objectivity. Graduate school is not a place to express one's own opinions, but to confirm and revise them using various theories and methods of analysis, and to evolve them into something deeper. I would like you to study management from an objective standpoint. To this end, at the Graduate School of Business Administration, the research areas are divided into nine fields to offer subjects that enable students to acquire and create various kinds of knowledge.

The places of learning are not only in Japan. We have our own study programs with partner schools in the UK, France, Germany, New Zealand, China, South Korea, and elsewhere. We also have a double degree program with the University of Technology, Malaysia, one of the top technical universities in Asia. Every year, a number of graduate students study there and obtain a master's degree in engineering. In addition, many of the students who have completed a master's course work in global companies, but those who wish to further their studies and become university teachers are prepared for entering the doctoral course. As one of the oldest private graduate schools in business administration (established in 1959), many doctorates have been awarded and many university teachers have been produced.

Graduate school serves as an intellectual arena that allows students to pursue their questions from an objective standpoint without being deceived by the trends of the times. It is no exaggeration to say that the path is wide open. I hope you will expand your potential in the Graduate School of Business Administration.