343 Masters Degree Programs in Japan

The Graduate School of Health Sciences (master's and doctoral programs) aims to train leaders and researchers with a high degree of research capacity in the field of health sciences. The Graduate School of Health Sciences consists of two educational research fields, Human Health Development and International Island Health, which conduct unique educational research regarding health and longevity on Okinawa, physical, psychosocial, and cultural factors that influence health, the development of health resources, and advanced healthcare technology, and island health in the Asia-Pacific region. We also promote the globalization of graduate education by encouraging graduate students to present their research at academic conferences such as the Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health. Those who complete the doctoral course potentially work as researchers and leaders in universities, hospitals, laboratories, and international organizations.

The Waseda-Nanyang Double MBA Program is an accelerated 14-month program that combines the strengths of two of the top business schools in Asia. It has a dual focus on global business and management of technology and is the only dual-degree MBA program in the world that starts in Singapore and ends in Tokyo.

The Graduate School of Christian Studies was established in April 2009 to significantly expand the Graduate School of Arts’ Program in Systematic Theology. Christianity at Rikkyo University inherits the traditions of the Anglican Church, but the Graduate School of Christian Studies does not restrict itself to particular denominations or faiths, instead of taking an ecumenical stance with an emphasis on the academic, multifaceted analysis and research of matters surrounding Christianity. A distinguishing feature of this program is that in addition to traditional academic approaches such as Bible Studies, Biblical Archaeology, Church History, Systematic Theology, Religious Studies, and the History of Christian Music and Art, there are also numerous practical skill subjects in which students can engage in Field Studies and Service Learning or Church Music such as organ performance and choral conducting. In this way, we aim to study Christianity in contact with real society, not just within the University or seminar rooms. The Graduate School of Christian Studies serves a major role within Rikkyo University as a center of research and education that relates to our founding principles and has twelve full-time faculty members providing research guidance. Through earnest research and passionate education, we explore the possibilities of twenty-first-century Christian Studies as a field that responds to the needs of modern society. Conscious of the global arena, we aim to develop the center for Christian Studies into a leading research institution for Christian Studies in Japan and East Asia.

The main research objectives of running the Special Course on Disaster Prevention Study for Asian Students are to understand and elucidate characteristic features of natural disasters in Asia and to develop their preventive measures, while the educational motto stands at producing first-class researchers and technical experts with frontier research capabilities and advanced knowledge in the field of natural disasters.

This program addresses the growing number of social issues related to food, such as low nutrition, lifestyle-related illness, and development disorders in children. It is the first of its type in Japan. Distinct from traditional studies in nutrition, the research focus is on the nutritional elements derived from food and their relation to the body, mind, and social interaction. Students are trained to become researchers or specialists such as Food Technologists or Senior Registered Dietitians. The program produces knowledgeable professionals able to offer scientifically sound solutions to maintain or improve health, and to address a wide range of nutritional issues in all aspects of society, including families, schools, and hospitals.

MEXT's Program for Leading Graduate Schools supports graduate schools that strive to create potential leaders who are capable of and disposed to take action on the global stage across a spectrum of platforms in the industry, government, and academia by developing the creativity of their best and brightest students and instilling in them the ability to approach issues from various perspectives. This program aims to build and develop degree programs with interdisciplinary, integrated masters and doctoral degrees that are quality assured and globally recognized. Outstanding leaders in the industry, government, and academia have joined in these efforts to bring together first-rate faculty and students from inside and outside Japan.

In order to design and construct the social infrastructure that supports people's lives from various perspectives, in addition to the basics of the conventional civil engineering field, we will improve our ability to collaborate with interdisciplinary fields such as community design, disaster prevention management, and overseas projects. Is a feature. In addition, we will enhance practical human power by actually experiencing local issues and construction technology sites. In this way, we will train construction engineers who can play an active role in Japan and overseas by developing technologies and proposing measures according to the actual region, taking into consideration the social conditions, the lives of local residents, and the natural environment from various angles.

The first program of its type in Japan, the Child Studies course draws on the accumulated history and traditions of early childhood education at Seitoku Gakuen to research and find solutions to the various problems associated with child care, which grow more severe each year. The program gives students a solid grounding in compassionate observation, allowing them to observe each child from a variety of angles. It also provides them with the knowledge of the issues of child development and education, as well as a practical ability to offer solutions. The program produces specialists with a deep understanding of children, such as kindergarten and primary school teachers, as well as professionals dealing with childhood issues in all fields.

In the 21st century, it is required to build a sustainable and circulating society in which global environments such as food, water, air, forests, and energy are secured. Especially in Japan, where energy resources are scarce, experts in the field of energy are needed. This course is aimed at fostering engineers capable of analyzing and solving energy-related problems such as securing energy resources, improving energy conversion efficiency, and developing energy efficiency technologies. Courses covering 3 engineering fields - heat/fluid energy engineering, energy device system engineering, and architectural/environmental system engineering are provided with faculty from a variety of fields and business enterprise experience. Energy System Engineering is looking for the passion of youth for the future.

Established with the aim of fostering human resources with advanced knowledge and skills in the fields of art and design, the Master's Degree Program was the first to be officially approved at a private art university in Japan in 1964. The Master's Degree Program encompasses five majors. In addition to Painting, Sculpture, and Design, the Art Studies major was installed in 1998, followed by Ceramic, Glass, and Metal Works in 2002. The distinct class system with one-on-one tutelage by subject teachers continuing from the undergraduate course aims to improve expertise in the respective fields. For the fostering of internationally-minded human resources, our school accepts a large number of foreign exchange students. Furthermore, in conformity with requests for postgraduate adult re-education, a system divided into daytime and nighttime classes were introduced in 1995.

In 2010, the Graduate School of Business Administration starts a new curriculum, moving from the previous two-course system to a new five-course system in order to clarify study goals. The five courses are: 1) The “Academic Course”, to foster researchers, 2) The “Business Course”, to deepen both theoretical and practical knowledge of business administration, 3) The “Japan-China Joint Business Course”, specializing in Chinese business practices, 4) The “Business Course for Working People”, where businesspeople can develop their working experience through further study, and 5) The “Research Course for Working People”, to seek solutions to diverse problems that business people face at work. In the Graduate School of Business Administration, there are many professors with diverse business experience so students are able to find practical solutions to their day-to-day business problems as well as theoretical foundations for their business practices.

The Graduate School of Tourism is Japan’s first graduate school where students can study and research specialist knowledge relating to tourism. With the increasing societal role and influence of tourism, the need has arisen in Japan and internationally to develop scholars and educators with advanced knowledge relating to tourism who can academically analyze how tourism should be in the future. The Graduate School of Tourism (Graduate Program in Tourism) consists of a master’s program and a doctoral program. The objective of the master’s program is to link the latest research findings in the field of tourism to the academic guidance of students and build a foundation to cultivate the tourism scholars needed at home and abroad. In the doctoral program, the objective is to cultivate the next generation of specialist educators and scholars in the field of tourism. The Graduate School of Tourism provides a center of sophisticated education and research to further raise the standard of academic research in the field of tourism.

OUNHS established a Health Sciences Master’s major and a Health Sciences PhD course in our Graduate School in 2009 to promote advanced research in non-nurse medical and healthcare professionals. These courses are very unique in universities and colleges of nursing in Japan. They were established for medical doctors, registered dietitians, radiation technologists, pharmacists, medical technologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and health and exercise trainers. The six specialty areas of the Master’s major are Health Physiology; Environmental Health Science; Physical Fitness and Sports Science; Radiological Health Science; Health Informatics and Biostatistics; and Mental Health. Education in the Master’s course is characterized by both day and night instruction, small class sizes, and mentor-group instruction. Two mentors with expertise in the course specialty area supervise student research from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students also receive statistical support and use statistical software such as SPSS, SAS, MATLAB and S-PLUS to process and interpret experimental and survey data.

The Rikkyo Graduate School of Sociology was founded nearly six decades ago to cope with societal needs to understand the changing society in which people, groups, organizations interact with each other. It is one of the largest schools of sociology in Japan. We have eminent specialists in various fields not only based upon sociological discipline but also upon the related areas. Our competence lies in the study of sociological theories, qualitative and quantitative research methods, social interaction, social stratification, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, social gerontology, family, religion, politics and social movements, industry, consumer society and consumerism, city and community, migration, environmental problems and education, media, journalism, science, technology and society(STS), cultural anthropology, cultural studies, and so on. In addition to seminar classes dealing with the above topics, the School provides research programs based upon active learning, including quantitative data analysis and fieldwork in overseas locations. We offer intensive courses to complement the analytical skills of students, and with dedicated supervision to ensure the innovative and high-profiled completion of Master theses and Doctoral dissertations. All our graduates are expected to actively participate in the globalized community. Our aim is that our PhDs will be deemed to contribute significantly to sociological studies worldwide.

Health and food are important topics and are of the greatest concern for humans to live a healthy life, but these topics change with the times. The diet of Japanese people has become richer and Japan now has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. However, meals have become more convenient, and this has brought with it an unmistakable increase in various problems related to diet, such as the imbalance in the intake of nutrients, excessive consumption of certain nutrients, and food safety. To solve these problems, it is necessary to have people with a broad range of specialist knowledge and ability. In the Food Science & Nutrition Program, we aim to nurture talented students who acquire the latest, high level of specialist knowledge in the fields of nutrition and food science, and deepen their knowledge by carrying out their own research, so that they can make a contribution to society by working as specialists and advising people how to maintain their health through eating healthily. Food and health are subjects that we should study for the whole of our life. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of people who have already been active in society, and have come back to university to deepen their knowledge and skills. After completing their graduate studies, they are playing an active part in society as researchers, specialists, or teachers. How about becoming a part of this circle of your seniors?