Bachelor in Letters
- Bunkyo City, Japan
- Meguro City, Japan
Bachelor's degree
DURATION
LANGUAGES
Japanese
PACE
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Apr 2027
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
About: The University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters offers broad humanities study across 27 departments, covering literature, philosophy, religion, history, language, art, and social sciences. It treats "letters" broadly as texts, visual arts, documents, archaeological artifacts, and social data, enabling study in literature, linguistics, cultural studies, art history, and archival research at Japan's first national research university established in 1877.
Career Outcomes: Graduates can pursue careers in academia, education, research, publishing, translation, cultural heritage, museums, archives, public service, and NGOs. Career opportunities also include arts administration, policy analysis, and corporate communications, using humanities skills in critical thinking, analysis, and language.
A fundamental fact must first be made clear: the Faculty of Letters is not just a place to study literature. Philosophy, religion, history, language, art, and social sciences are included among the wide range of subjects that can be studied here.
So, then, why do we call ourselves the “Faculty of Letters”? The reason lies in the fact that all of our 27 departments involve the study of “letters” in some form or another. All of the following items and concepts, for instance, fit into this category: the philosophies the great thinkers have bequeathed to us, government documents of historical significance, archeological relics, and paintings and other visual arts. Another area which belongs in this group is the written word, which literally would be considered a study of “letters.” Even various types of data on social issues can be interpreted in this way. Thus, these objects and concepts, divergent as they are from one another, all fall under the broadly defined category of “letters.”
