History and Philosophy
The origins of the School of Political Science and Economics (SPSE), the parent organization of the Graduate School of Economics, go back to the Division of Political Science and Economics at the time Waseda University was founded as Tokyo Senmon Gakko (technical college) in 1882. The current Graduate School of Economics was launched in 1951 under a newly adopted system that incorporated the existing graduate school that had been established under the former system. The current graduate school has two departments: (1) the Theoretical Economics and the History of Economics Department; and (2) the Applied Economics Department. Taking into account the founding philosophy behind the establishment of the School of Political Science and Economics, which aims to combine political science and economics, this graduate school is engaged in research supervision based on an educational philosophy of developing human resources. In other words, humans who have the ability to recommend, implement, and evaluate specific policies that can meet domestic and international political and economic challenges in an increasingly borderless age. Furthermore, it aims to produce human resources that can conceive of and communicate to the world, the formation and reform of economic systems based on the fact that economic phenomena in all societies depend to a large extent on the norms that regulate the society and the political, cultural, and social context of the society.

Majors
The Theoretical Economics and the History of Economics Major has as its core, a base in theoretical economics, involving wide-ranging research into economic phenomena from both macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. The department covers a broad spectrum of subjects such as Mathematical Economics (e.g., game theory), which mathematically explains economic phenomena; Econometrics, which quantitatively analyzes economic phenomena; the History of Economic Theories, which deals with various economic theories from the classical school to today’s economic development theory; Statistics, which is coordinated with both Economic Statistics and Information Science; the Economic History of Japan; and the Economic History of Europe, which mainly focuses on the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Russia, etc.
The Applied Economics Major is comprised of the Applied Economics Course and the International Political Economy Course. The Applied Economics Course covers a wide range of subjects, including Economic Policy, which extensively researches the formation of economic policy; Agricultural Economics, which examines all categories of industrial structures, particularly agricultural structures; Industrial Organization, which primarily focuses on analyzing the theory and practice of industrial organizations; International Economics, which reexamines international economic theory and studies the current state of international economic relations; Monetary Policy and Banking; Finance, which examines international finance and other finance issues; Social Policy, which researches social policy theory and, in particular, critically examines and applies social policy from both a general perspective, as well as through specific policies from labor economics; and Public Finance, which looks at the theory and practice of national government finances and local government finances.
The Graduate School of Economics and the Graduate School of Political Science jointly established a Master's program as part of the International Political Economy Course in fiscal year 2008. This is an advanced course that encourages the analysis and identification of the countless mutual linkages between politics and economics from the international perspective. At the same time, it endeavors to develop new fields of academic study that enable the examination and conception of feasible policies from the normative perspective. This course covers four areas: Experimental Political Economy, International Political Economy, the Political Economy of Public Policy, and the Political Economy of the Regions of Japan.

Education Programs
Master’s Program
In order to get a good understanding for how this program is designed, we apply the metaphor of a woven textile. That is, the course work subjects, such as the methodology of economic history requirement for those in the economic history research field, or requirements in both microeconomics and macroeconomics for those in other fields, form the program’s horizontal threads. These are interwoven with vertical threads formed by required subjects for each research supervisor and special courses, such as required seminar subjects and courses taught by supervisors. The goal of the student is to master solid, specialized knowledge, and to write his/her Master’s dissertation based on that knowledge. The pattern of this textile can be woven freely in accordance with each theme and an individual’s future objectives through the combination of common subjects, optional subjects, and occasionally, subjects offered by other departments and graduate schools.

Doctoral Program
This program offers education and research supervision through credits from five research areas: basic economic theory, statistical and econometric analysis, economic history, applied economic theory, and economic structures and systems. The program consists of a joint research supervision structure for each research area, utilizing the head and associate research supervisor system, and comprehensive seminars for each research area (required).

Degrees If a student has satisfied the requirements for the completion of the Master’s course, he/she will receive a Master’s degree. A “Master’s Degree in International Political Economy” is conferred to students who have completed the International Political Economy Course and a “Master’s Degree (Economics)” is conferred to students who have completed other courses. Generally, in order to obtain a Master’s degree, a student must be enrolled at the university for a period of two years (or one year for students who have passed the screening test to certify that they have already completed the equivalent of one year), must complete 32 credits or more from lecture subjects, must undergo research supervision (basic and applied), must submit a Master’s dissertation, and must receive a passing grade for the dissertation. Moreover, the breakdown of the number of required credits is stipulated for each subject.

Early Completion System
As a special exemption in terms of the number of years a student is required to attend the university, a total of three years or more in the graduate school's Master’s and Doctoral programs will be deemed sufficient, only if the Graduate School Steering Committee recognizes that a student has achieved outstanding research results. The university has also set up a system for the completion of the Master’s program in one year for students who are currently in their fourth year of undergraduate school and are recognized as having taken graduate school subjects previously and having achieved outstanding grades in these courses.