Rikkyo University established the Graduate School of Tourism as Japan's first graduate school to specialize in the study of tourism. After many years of successful education and research on tourism within the Graduate School of Sociology, with the increasing role and influence of tourism on society, the need has arisen in Japan, but also overseas, to cultivate educators and scholars with a sophisticated level of knowledge about tourism and the ability to analyze academically how it should develop in the future.
The doctoral program of the Graduate School of Tourism (Graduate Program in Tourism) consists of first-stage and second-stage programs. The aim of the first-stage is to link the latest results of academic research on tourism with the education given to students in order to create a basis for filling the demand in Japan and abroad for researchers in tourism studies. The aim of the program's second-stage is to nurture the next generation of tourism specialists. The Graduate School of Tourism is a center of high-level education and research that aspires to raise the level of academic research in the field of tourism.
