About Our School

The Graduate School of Humanities was established in FY 2008 as a new graduate school with education and research devoted to “a quest for harmonization of humanity and environment.” Courses are offered in three research fields: Ethics, Philosophy and Religion; Culture; and Peace and the Environment. Students choose one of the three courses, but interdisciplinary teaching is provided by several faculty members. That ensures students receive research guidance with a comprehensive approach not weighted toward any one specialty. In FY 2010, a doctoral course was established with the aim of fostering high-level professionals and academics who can engage in comprehensive research and respond to a variety of issues. Those issues include ethical questions raised by the dramatic advances in science and technology, cross-cultural understanding in today’s globalized world, development of peace-building strategies to combat structural violence, and contribution to humanity’s coexistence with the natural environment.

Ethics, philosophy, and religion hold the key to understanding not only Japan, but contemporary society in a broader sense. This research course looks at traditional topics in these three areas, as well as at contemporary ethics and thought, and in it, students conduct multifaceted research on religion.

This research course sees culture as an expression of humanity and focuses on cross-cultural understanding, with a focus on the preservation of minority cultures.

Study in this program focuses on peace-building, economic development, and coexistence with the natural environment. Ethnic conflict, society’s relationship with the natural environment, as well as issues of safety related to developments in science and technology, are considered from a broad perspective.