Modern Japanese Studies

The department does not teach Japanese for beginners but rather aims to develop your existing language skill to the level at which you can use it to research about Japan. The department’s courses aim to take you from a minimum of JLPT Level 3 up to and beyond Level 1.

• a core course on research methods
• two courses about Japan chosen from Modern Japanese History, Japanese Linguistics, Modern Japanese Literature and Film, Japanese Politics, Japanese Economics, Japanese Social Anthropology and the Sociology of Japanese Society
• the Japanese language course (or a further course about Japan if you have native-speaker language competence).

There are nine components to the MPhil degree.

In the first year, you will take:

All the courses about Japan have been designed for students at the graduate level and most students will be on the Japanese studies programme. Some courses may also be taken by students who are studying elsewhere in the university - for example, the course on Japanese politics is an option for both Japanese studies students and students on the MPhil in Politics (Comparative Government).