The Doctoral Program in History and Anthropology consists of two majors: History and Anthropology. The first major includes four research fields: Japanese, Oriental, and Western History and Historical Geography. The second includes two research fields: Prehistory/Archaeology, and Folklore/Cultural Anthropology. These majors are designed for 5 year-program students.
The major of History provides an excellent level of expertise in various aspects of history between the emergence of ancient empires and the present day for Japan, Eastern and Western Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition to the traditional subject of historical research in political history, it embraces specialized subjects in social, economic, and cultural history.
The major of Anthropology provides an excellent level of expertise in various aspects of anthropology, and embraces specialized subjects such as human evolution, the origin of agriculture and the emergence of civilization based on the material culture, the comparative study of human way of life and belief-system for the contemporary world and the folklore of the Japanese and their neighbors.
About twenty professors teach in this Program, where the courses are based on lectures and tutorials, with some practice in history or anthropology. The lectures introduce most of the materials you will need and provide core concepts and theories. In the weekly tutorials, you will go into further investigate certain topics. Furthermore, you are advised to earn the credits of lectures outside your own field or major in order to broaden your academic perspectives. You have to satisfy all the requirements of the 5 year-program. After having earned the total credits in this Program, you must submit the Interim thesis which is equivalent to a Master’s dissertation. After succeeding in the examination, you will submit a Doctoral dissertation to be awarded Doctoral degree in Literature.