Contemporary society is a complex amalgam of various systems and organizations. At the same time, rapid changes occur on a global scale, shaking existing values at their roots. What is expected of us today is nothing less than the ability to firmly grasp this turbulent reality, to identify its problems, and to find solutions to these problems. We need to understand the constituent elements, structures, and functioning of systems and organizations, and create new ways of turning potential into reality. This must all be considered in the context of the relationship between these elements and the individuals. Law and political science are fields of study for acquiring knowledge and ways of thinking in order to understand reality. Remaining, since its founding, true to its philosophy of "The Wisdom of Peace and Order," the College of Law and Politics provides the environment that students need to hone the wisdom and determination required to exist in the present while reaching out to the future.
The College of Law and Politics has created an integrated curriculum to enable students to acquire a broad perspective. Students can take developmental courses in any of the College's three departments.
While referring to models for taking courses, students can pursue their own interests and independently put together their own course plan. The College offers complete guidance and consultation to help students determine their selections.
Law and political science are difficult to grasp at first. As such, the curriculum is designed to gradually impart in students specialized knowledge by offering classes like Introduction to Law, Introduction to Political Science, and Basic Readings, which they take in the first semester of their first year.
The Department of Law provides fundamental studies in various fields of law. The Department offers a broad spectrum of subjects, from domestic to international law, from public to private law, and from basic to cutting-edge legal fields.
The Department offers a wide range of small-sized, seminar-type classes, such as basic readings seminars, practical training classes, and law and politics in foreign languages seminars.
The Department provides a firm grounding in law, obtained through studies in a variety of legal areas and their peripheral fields, such as the sociology of law, the philosophy of law, comparative law, and various fields of political science.
After gaining a foundation in their Introductory Law and Basic Readings classes, students begin their studies in the more specialized fields of law, including constitutional law, civil law, and criminal law. It is during this period that students get a feel for the importance of law, and come to understand how law represents the accumulated wisdom of mankind.
Furthermore, the Department offers a diverse range of lectures and seminars in various fields of law, such as administrative law, international law, procedural law, labor law, intellectual property law, and tax law.
The Department nurtures graduates capable of working in various fields of business, such as finance, manufacturing, and trade. The Department provides an extensive curriculum, which combines foreign language and legal classes, instilling in students the skills essential for corporate society in the globalized world.
After a thorough study in their first and second years of various subjects pertaining to basic law, students embark on studies of cutting-edge corporate legal practice, including international corporate mergers and acquisitions and patent disputes.
Through coordination with the Department of Law and the Department of Politics, the Department of International Business Law enables students to study in addition to law-related subjects, a wide range of subjects in the field of politics. Students are able to acquire a broad international political outlook as well as a well-rounded education and extensive knowledge of the law.
Throughout their four years of undergraduate study, students are able to enroll in seminars of limited enrollment that emphasize cultivating skills to enable students to effectively carry out research, write reports, and make presentations. In these classes, students independently select their themes, and carry out extensive research on them.
The accumulation of systematic studies is essential to the study of law. Students first obtain a thorough grounding in subjects pertaining to basic law, and then progress to the study of law-related subjects that are necessary for globalized corporate society.
The Department of Politics offers a wide variety of subjects covering Japanese politics, as well as the politics of Western countries and Asia. In seminars, students receive thorough guidance on study methodology for various fields, ranging from classical political science texts to contemporary documents, such as Internet-based information in foreign languages. Students in the Department acquire a broad, sociologically-oriented political education.
The classes are set up to enable students to study not only traditional subjects such as the structure of nations and their governments, various political issues particular to different parts of the world, and political logic and thought, but also new issues that have arisen in our contemporary society with respect to gender, ethnicity, and the relationship between science and politics.
Through coordination with the Department of Law and the Department of International and Business Law, the Department of Politics enables students to study a wide range of law-related subjects. Students can develop a well-balanced program that instills both a flexible political mentality and also a solid knowledge of systems and laws.
In their first year, students take basic readings and basic politics seminars, and from their second year onward, they attend lectures and seminars in more specialized areas, along with practical skills-based foreign language classes. Throughout their undergraduate studies, students are able to study in seminars of limited enrollment. In the seminars, the emphasis is on cultivating skills, such as effectively conducting research, writing reports, and giving presentations, all of which are essential for students to conduct advanced research.
In the study of political science, it is critically important to acquire not only the analytical ability to understand new information that fills our world today, but also the ability to think deeply about people and society, from a historical and philosophical perspective. For this reason, many specialized subjects are offered to students from their second year onward, and a flexible plan of study can be established with the students’ personal interests in mind.
