What I have found most rewarding since starting here at GIS is the sheer amount of new possibilities and opportunities I am able to experience. Up until graduating from high school, we are all very restricted when it comes to opportunities outside and inside of school. However, this department has a diverse range of faculty and students, so a whole new door to learning has opened.
Saiyon TANAKA

The best part of university is not only studying about the subjects which interest you, but how it provides a much broader environment, encouraging you to grow as an individual. It is also worth noting that in GIS in particular, you have a lot of freedom in forming “your” own education.
Danieruryu YAMASHITA

I found that the transition was positive because the interdisciplinary university environment at GIS is a place which allows you to take subjects in what you desire to learn. You get to pursue the areas that interest you personally and develop a diverse set of skills.
Christopher Kenta BAILEY

In my high school classes in Japan, all I had to do was to sit in the same chair for many hours, just listening to the teachers talk like in a daydream. However, things are completely different in GIS. Not only do we select classes that we are interested in, but we also have many opportunities to exchange our ideas and create a positive and rewarding learning environment together with professors. It is exciting to be stimulated by peers’ ideas, and every day I can improve my ability to speak up in classes. There is no way to get bored in this exciting community!
Akari SEKO

Since students of GIS have broad perspectives and strong beliefs that they are comfortable sharing with others, we can enjoy serious discussions both inside and outside of the class. In my view, this environment is such a good opportunity to think deeply, and it stimulates me to think further and grow. Additionally, everyone had “a group” to belong to in high school; however, in GIS, there isn’t a specific group, but we can hang out with anyone. This allows us to be flexible in exploring the new world in front of you. These are the things that I appreciate being a part of GIS.
Shiori TANABE

University students can have more free time than high school students. Here, you can take their favorite courses since there are many options to choose from within the curriculum, allowing you to gain time management skills. Especially for GIS students, we have a lot of assignments and reviewing & previewing classes is necessary. In your spare time, you do not only study but you also hang out with your friends or you can even do a part-time job. I use my spare time mainly studying and working at my part-time job. The more wisely you use your time, the more you can enjoy university life.
Ibuki SUNOHARA

What I gained by learning English poetry

Through learning English poetry, we were able to understand the rules and sources of the poem's system. In particular it was an excellent opportunity to learn the beauty of poetry based on understanding the effectiveness of rhyme and scheme. This study also helped my own music activities: making my own lyrics. Furthermore, each production has a deep meaning because there are connections between literature and history, helping us understand the significance of the writings.

A tool to interpret international phenomena

Introduction to International Relations provides us with the perspectives – the major concepts and theories of International Relations – to not only understand what is occurring internationally but also to analyze the causes of them. It is necessary for us to master major concepts and theories in order to analyze international events like war, conflicts, or international political structures. Introduction to International Relations can be a tool for us to see complicated international phenomena clearly.

Give an insight into L2 education issues

When entering this faculty, I targeted TESOL courses because I would like to become an English teacher in the future. In TESOL II, I learned various language teaching methods used not only in Japan, but also other countries around the world. At the end of the course, I conducted an English lesson by following theories during ‘microteaching’ sessions. I believe that the activities done in this particular class will become one of my irreplaceable experiences.

Acquiring fundamental marketing knowledge

From consumer buyer behavior to advertising and pricing strategies, in this class, I was able to gain a concrete foundation of marketing knowledge. The course curriculum was conducted very efficiently for the students to understand the topics discussed in class due to the steps of lectures, presentations, and short quizzes. This cycle enhanced our ability to acquire class material, understand it and apply it.

Trying something new

In Creative Writing you do not just read and write; you also acquire the crucial elements of writing and understanding stories. I have learned how to approach beginning a good story, produce timelines, illustrate characters, construct scenes, understand narration, create themes and understand the writing-revision process. If you do not know any of these and want to try something new, this is your course!

How culture shapes how you see yourself and others

In cultural psychology you will learn how culture doesn't only affect your behavior, but also how you view the world and others, how different cultures have different senses of "self" and different sources of motivation and much more. The classes are very engaging and interesting and you're sure to get an insight into how you and your behavior is linked to the culture you grew up in.

BMW Japan Strategy & Digital Team

During my internship, the academic knowledge, linguistic ability and practical skills I developed in GIS are helping me stand out in the global working environment. The wide variety of courses I’ve taken have assisted me in conducting research, competitor analysis and proposing digital market strategies.

In our globalized world, we have to learn about various countries to become successful. At first, Japan and the United Kingdom may seem to be similar in certain ways. We are island countries, have a long history, and have a royal family. However, the backgrounds of both countries are also very different. In our seminar, we discuss those similarities and differences in terms of culture, society, religion and history through English Literature. In the spring semester, we read a novel about an Irish boy, Angela’s Ashes, and all the seminar students gave a presentation and discussed the contents in depth. I was surprised to know the complicated historical and psychological relationships between people in Ireland, the UK, and the US. Learning a foreign culture enables us to think about Japan from a new perspective, which also leads to gaining a better understanding of the wider, globalized world.

In our seminar, Language Teaching and Learning, we aim to explore effective teaching and learning in second language (L2) education. In particular, we learn about L2 motivation to study and how it affects the successful achievements of the L2 learner.
Along with studying from our reading materials and presenting the contents to share them with other seminar members, we are encouraged to apply the expertise into practice: we hold our English summer school every year to teach English to primary school pupils. We can practice our knowledge and make progress with our teaching proficiency within the actual field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. It is quite enjoyable to deal with young EFL learners and fulfilling to be able to make contributions to their L2 learning.
I believe that this seminar is most suitable for anyone interested in any context related to language education, especially L2/EFL education.

In this era of global change and an internationalized world, the issues of international relations are among the most crucial matters to understand. In the IR Seminar, students analyze academic articles through presentations, discussions, debate, and essays to critically examine the phenomena which directly relate to real-world issues, and gain extensive knowledge of IR. Since the seminar demands that the students think critically through examining sets of data and evidence, it can be intense and difficult at times. However, what the students are left with after the seminar are the skills that couldn’t have been developed without such challenging experiences. For me, although I thought that I knew what critical thinking and analysis meant, I had the realization of what true critical thinking skills are in this seminar, which was a shock to me. By putting in the effort and striving to better ourselves, I am confident that the final result will be the cultivation of skills and strength better than before.

In the diverse world we live in today, it is becoming more difficult to simply categorize people into distinctive groups by race, class, or gender. Intersectionality is a tool to observe and analyze multiple discriminations of marginalized people caused by the intersection of more than one factor affecting the person.
The seminar provides opportunities to learn about various inequalities in the contemporary world. Each week, one seminar member brings an academic article related to their research interest and gives a presentation, while other members are expected to assess the paper with critical eyes and come up with ideas to improve the paper.
Furthermore, we engage in an active discussion of the issues covered in the article. By discussing sensitive and complex issues, we learn the fundamental skills of respecting others and analyzing a problem in depth. Most importantly, the seminar develops students’ critical thinking skills through cultivating our ability to tackle problems from wider perspectives and positions.

During my stay in Germany as an international high school student I encountered a variety of non-native ‘Englishes’, which attracted me to the study of English as a lingua franca. I was also interested in business, and personally founded a start-up company after being admitted to GIS. In my third year, however, I chose to join a seminar which focuses on the diversity of English around the world, including speakers’ attitudes to accents of the language. I thought that detecting clients’ social backgrounds through speech will contribute to successful business interactions. Indeed, the themes which I have learned in this seminar are not only academically fascinating, but also very practical in understanding today’s rapidly changing global society. My knowledge about the diversity of language and culture has been a valuable asset in considering job offers from multi-national financial companies. In the future, I would like to work as a professional fund manager based on my global experiences and utilizing the skills gained through this seminar.

In this seminar, we have been learning how our thoughts and behaviors influence people and society. When comparing different cultural contexts, we shared our own experience living in various countries and adopted it to discuss how research findings may not apply to some cultures. I am sure that writing weekly reports on what we learned from research papers advanced our skills to organize information and build arguments logically. We actively exchange questions and opinions in discussion, which offered different perspectives and were very useful to deepen our understanding together. By learning fundamental psychology in terms of the relationship between individuals and culture, we can expand our knowledge to practical situations of how it actually has affected world history, and how we can engage in international development for the future of all beyond borders and cultural differences. For example, I was intrigued by how people are inspired by the motivation to help others and how these motives affect the quality of helping and the relationship between providers and recipients. Investigating these aspects gave me inspiration to encourage both developed and developing countries to attend to multilateral assistance more effectively such as for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. I think that stimulating the prompt willingness of each nation to help each other based on psychological knowledge is one of the most practical approaches to contend with global issues.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are critical in today’s business world because entrepreneurs are the only stakeholders who can make breakthrough innovations under the current economic conditions. In this seminar, we learn practical knowledge and concepts of business using case studies. The case studies are interesting because they are selected from different industries. For me, as someone who aspires to be an entrepreneur, it is necessary to study how current innovative companies overcome their difficulties and why some companies failed to survive. In addition, many students in this seminar share similar visions, so we can help each other to improve our knowledge and motivation. Our professor also helps us not only in our studies but also in developing a path for our future careers.

This seminar offers an academic learning environment for strategies and management in international business. The course focuses on three core academic fields: cultures & communication, business models, and marketing & PR. In groups, we are asked to give presentations and facilitate the discussion, based on the topics we present. We also refer to case studies – also used in the Harvard Business School – and discuss, in an academic manner, the best solution for each of the problems that the companies are facing. Besides studying in class, seminar members also have the chance to participate in marketing competitions. Last year, members were given the opportunity to join a workshop in collaboration with BMW Japan and MCJ (Marketing Competition Japan) 2019 where one of the teams from our seminar won 1st prize. Communication is essential in our seminar and we enjoy group interaction. We feel that this seminar group is one of the most important experiences in our university life; our motto is “work hard, play hard!”

You can make the best use of your knowledge that you have accumulated in GIS in our Tourism Management seminar. This is because tourism is itself multilateral, concerning fields such as political science, history, ecology, sociology, psychology, business management and marketing.
This seminar also provides a critical lens that challenges our pre-existing understanding of tourism. In our daily life, we are consumers of tourism, however, this seminar allows us to observe the dynamism of tourism from totally different perspectives. In each class, we look at domestic/international case studies and analyze issues behind what seem to be examples of successful tourism. Additionally, we read academic papers and develop our understanding through discussion and presentation. As the students play an active role in delivering presentations and leading discussion, you can develop critical thinking, problem solving, and group coping skills. The quality of learning differs depending on the environment in which you learn and people you learn with. Here, we form a family like relationship which you can confirm by visiting our official Instagram account (@gis.tourism_seminar). You will also be given opportunities to collaborate with local tourism organizations such as the Most Beautiful Villages in Japan NPO, which is one of the experiences exclusive to our seminar.