The academic supervisors in charge of the following “research fields” speak English, and classes of those research fields will be taught in both English and Japanese flexibly adjusting backgrounds of the enrolled students. The interested students are suggested to consider carefully if one of the following research fields available in this academic year could match with their needs. The professor in charge of the chosen research field will work as a research supervisor until the program completes.
For more detail in the curriculum structure at the Graduate School of Social Sciences and the descriptions of the research areas, please see “Features and Organization”.
※The Graduate School of Social Sciences does not require prospective applicants to contact faculty prior to application. Please first carefully check the “Research Fields” section of our website as well as the “Waseda University Researchers Database” before making inquiries. Only if you are unable to determine whether the research field of your choice matches your research plan, should you make an inquiry by briefly describing the outline of your research plan. The review of the full research plan will be conducted only after the application is submitted.Please note that a reply from faculty member is not guaranteed.
If you have any questions about the admissions procedure, please contact the GSSS office (admissions-socs<at>list.waseda.jp).
※Please replace <at> with the @ when sending e-mails.
| Majors | Research Fields | Research Supervisors | Master’s Program | Doctoral Program |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major in Global Society | Contemporary Japanese Society | Prof. GAYLE, Curtis Anderson | Available | Available |
| Urban Housing and Community Development | Prof. SODA, Osamu | Available | Available | |
| Industrial Organization | Prof. DOMON, Koji | Available | Available | |
| Global Governance | Associate Prof. OKUSAKO, Hajime | Available | Available | |
| International Finance | Prof. KITAMURA, Yoshihiro | Available | Available | |
| Research in Organizational Behavior | Prof. JUNG, Yuhee | Not available during 2024.9~2025.9 | Not available during 2024.9~2025.9 | |
| International Management | Prof. HASEGAWA, Shinji | Available | Available | |
| International Relations | Prof. HORI, Yoshie | Available | Available | |
| International Cooperation and Peacebuilding | Prof. YAMADA, Mitsuru | Not Available | Not available | |
| Strategic Leadership and Governance | Prof. YOSHIKAWA, Toru | Available | Available | |
| Major in Policy Sciences | Econometrics on Program Evaluation | Associate Prof. ARAI, Yoichi | Available | Available |
| Environmental Economics | Prof. AKAO, Kenichi | Available | Available | |
| Eurasian, and Global Food and Resource Economic Studies | Prof. GEMMA, Masahiko | Available | Available | |
| Sociology of Development and Environment | Prof. HAMAMOTO, Atsushi | Available | Available | |
| Environmental Law and Policy | Prof. KUROKAWA, Satoshi | Available | Available | |
| Game Theory | Associate Prof. KASAJIMA, Yoichi | Available | Available | |
| Social Governance | Prof. SHINODA, Toru | Available | Available | |
| Philosophy of the Social Sciences | Prof. YOSHIDA, Kei | Available | Available |
Research Area: Contemporary Japanese Studies
(Master’s Program) This course takes up contemporary issues, problems and discourses in modern Japanese society with special attention on the historical background and ideological context within which we may better understand how such issues have been a central part of historical development in Japan since the Meiji period. Combining approaches in both the social sciences and history, this course seeks to shed critical light on specific problems such as gender, income inequity, nationalism, and globalization. Cultural discourses and public culture are also a part of this course and students are encouraged to learn about modern Japan through a broad-based approach that combines and utilizes various theories and perspectives. Themes within intellectual history and the history of thought in Japan will also be covered. A basic reading knowledge of Japanese is desirable; students can write their thesis in English.
(Doctoral Program) This course takes up contemporary issues, problems and discourses in modern Japanese society with special attention on the historical background and ideological context within which we may better understand how such issues have been a central part of historical development in Japan since the Meiji period. Combining approaches in both the social sciences and history, this course seeks to shed critical light on specific problems such as gender, income inequality, nationalism, and globalization. Cultural discourse, public culture and civil society are also a part of this course and students are encouraged to learn about modern Japan through a broad-based approach that combines and utilizes various theories and perspectives. Themes within intellectual history and the history of thought in Japan will also be covered. A basic reading knowledge of Japanese is desirable; students can write their thesis in English.
Research Area: Contemporary Japanese Studies
Housing and community development supervision provides students with an understanding of theory and practice in community management, particularly social and physical community development in low demand areas. Research emphasizes local planning and developmental context and pays particular attention to physical and socio-cultural conditions. It will be recommended students to join in participatory action research (PAR) projects in either urban or rural areas. Research addresses current topics, including community profiling, capacity building, collaborative planning, governance, community knowledge management, local housing strategies, institutional design, social innovation and resilience.
Research Area: Contemporary Japanese Studies
Through competition among companies, a market leads to efficient production and creates incentives to develop new products. Considering how this mechanism works well is a main theme of economic analysis, triggering discussions regarding a variety of economic policies. This course studies industrial organization, consisting of firms competing with one another, using approaches from applied microeconomics. (Master’s Program) After studying basic microeconomics and mathematics for economic analysis, students will focus on a specific industry, e.g., Internet platforms, public utilities, automobile industries, content creators, and then summarize actual phenomena within that industry. As background for a thesis, students will select an academic topic considered by scholars and read related papers. Finally, students will write a thesis using their original ideas to extend existing considerations.(Doctoral Program) Students will select a specific topic recently discussed within international academic journals. A suggested target is high-tech and emerging industries, which are protected by intellectual property rights. By using theoretical methods from the fields of Industrial Organization and Law & Economics, students must publish three papers at a minimum in academic journals.
Research Area: International Cooperation
(Master’s Program ) Many of current public policy problems have “cross-border”nature in at least three respects of geographical space, linkage among issue areas, and complexity/hybridity of relevant agents (governments, IOs, civil society actors, etc.). We have been unable to deal with such issues appropriately only through the nation state system as the existing basic political framework. Therefore, global governance study, which seeks to ameliorate and solve “cross-border”global public problems, has great value in searching for restructuring more effective and fairer politics, in this era of “political crisis”under the impacts of globalization. In this course, we will investigate the existing literature, especially the significance/potential and the problems/challenges of diverse theories and case studies on global governance, as systematically and comprehensively as possible.
(Doctoral Program) Many of current public policy problems have “cross-border”nature in at least three respects of geographical space, linkage among issue areas, and complexity/hybridity of relevant agents (governments, IOs, civil society actors, etc.). We have been unable to deal with such issues appropriately only through the nation state system as the existing basic political framework. Therefore, global governance study, which seeks to ameliorate and solve “cross-border”global public problems, has great value in searching for restructuring more effective and fairer politics, in this era of “political crisis”under the impacts of globalization. In this course, we will investigate how we can/should design, build and manage more effective and fairer global governance institutions (e.g. multi-level, multi-sectoral, and multi-stakeholders), referring to state-of-the-art theories, case studies, and comparative institutional studies.
Research Area: International Cooperation
This course provides the elemental tools (especially empirical ones) to analyze the topics in International Finance. Beginning with uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) puzzle, several issues still have remained unresolved in this research area. To try these issues, you should understand essential financial theories at first. Based on them, you can try an empirical analysis. So, in your first stage, I suggest several text books and journal articles those show the theoretical explanations for the puzzles. When you are ready to understand these theories, you examine whether these are consistent with empirical evidence.
Research Area: International Cooperation
(Master’s Program) Organizational behavior (OB) research is a discipline whose main purpose is to empirically clarify human behavior in organizations and to apply this knowledge to improve organizational efficiency. In this course, each student will find his/her own research question and write a master’s thesis while examining various issues related to OB research, such as individual personality, motivation, leadership, organizational culture. In particular, as OB research is based on empirical research methods, it is desirable for students to have a basic knowledge of statistics in order to complete their master’s thesis. In addition, a sufficient level of English reading comprehension is required, as literature review, mainly in top-tier journals, is essential.
(Doctoral Program) The aim of this research guidance is for the student to write a doctoral dissertation that is publishable in an international academic journal in the field of organizational behavior. For this purpose, students are encouraged to grasp the theoretical and empirical trends in this research field from the latest articles published in international journals (mainly Top-tier Journal Publications). In addition, since this research guidance will mainly involve empirical research, it is desirable to have basic knowledge of the analytical methods required in this research field.
Research Area: International Cooperation
(Master’s Program) In this research field, the goal is for students to acquire the analytical skills to theoretically and empirically investigate various managerial problems firms are facing when internationalizing their business activities and organizations. Classes will be discussion based and we will not only be looking at recent domestic and international academic journals on related topics but will also,
through a firm understanding of its contents, get a grasp of recent research trends.
Through this method, the focus will be on the development of logical thinking while always being conscious of where the substantially inherent problems exist. At the same time, each student will develop ideas for their Master’s thesis and will, while using their viewpoints as a base, learn to consider their thesis topic deeply.
(Doctoral Program) Students will look at the managerial phenomena of multinational firms and learn to acquire the awareness of issues necessary to challenge long-established theories and, through the investigation of the reasoning and proving process (identifying an issue, proposing hypotheses, and testing the hypotheses), gain new insights on the topic.
Research Area: International Cooperation
(Master’s Program) Research Focus: Southeast Asia, Gender. This course is for writing a master’s thesis on Southeast Asia using the framework of international relations (especially political economy) and area studies. Students who want to do gender analysis in Southeast Asia are also welcome. Field work is also encouraged. Firstly, we use some texts to understand the role of gender in economic growth in Asia and read materials on poverty/inequality and women’s migration etc. Secondly, students will present regarding papers and books related to their own research areas. Students will be expected to present which is related to development (including community-based development), gender issues, poverty and inequality, human rights, NGOs and civil-society in Southeast Asia.
(Doctoral Program) Research Focus: Southeast Asia, Gender. This course is for writing the D.Phil. dissertation on Southeast Asia using the framework of international relations (especially political economy) and area studies. Students who want to do gender analysis on Southeast Asia are also welcome. Students will be required to review previous research according to the theme of the students such as development (including community-based development), gender issues, poverty and inequality, human rights, NGOs and civil-society in Southeast Asia. More, field research is encouraged in related areas.
Research Area: International Cooperation
The question of how to rebuild post-conflict countries has become one of the most urgent problems in the world today. According to a World Bank report, about 50% of post-conflict states are said to bring out conflicts again within five years. That’s why the main goal of peacebuilding is to prevent a relapse into violent conflict. The 2003 Revised Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter indicates that peacebuilding is a critical issue. We will analyze and consider how Japan is dealing with peacebuilding processes in post-conflict countries, and we will compare them with those of other countries, UN organizations and so on.
Research Area: International Cooperation
(Master’s Program) In this research field, the students are expected to understand the latest research trends related to strategic leadership (CEO, top management team, senior managers), corporate governance (board of directors, ownership structure, institutional factors that shape governance practices), and other related topics in the global context. By keeping up with the recent studies through course readings and in-class discussions, the students will acquire skills and competences to develop their own research questions and find evidence through data analysis to answer those questions. Based on those research questions and data analysis, each student will write a master’s thesis. It is important to note that a sufficient level of English reading comprehension and basic data collection and analysis skills are essential.
(Doctoral Program) This course aims to expose the students to the latest research on strategic leadership, corporate governance, and other related research topics so that they can identify research gaps, theoretical insights, and contribute to the research field. Each student is expected to write a doctoral dissertation that can be publishable in a referred academic journal. As research in strategic leadership and governance usually entails empirical analysis, each student will be required to gather his or her own data, so that he or she can present empirical findings. As we mainly focus on academic articles in referred international journals (especially top-tier journals), it is important to note that each student should be highly competent to read English research articles published in those journals.
Research Area: Sustainable Development
Environmental problems have caused serious health damage and huge social loss. Nowadays global environmental issues have been jeopardizing our life infrastructure on the global scale. Environmental Economics, as a field of applied economics, addresses these problems. The traditional approach is to characterize efficient pollution control and use of natural resources and to investigate effective policy measures for implementation. It also addresses a new challenge: the management of global public goods from the viewpoint of intergenerational equity with a century wide perspective. In order to contribute to this field, a researcher should not only have a serious interest in environmental issues, but also have solid and broad knowledge in economics. I hope to help students become equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills.
Research Area: Sustainable Development
(Master’s Program) You are expected to write a master’s thesis in relation to the legal system of environmental regulation. Air pollution, water pollution, waste management, soil contamination, climate change, or nature protection can be a field of your research. It is necessary to compare the regulatory scheme in Japan with that in another country. In order to analyze the environmental regulatory scheme, you need to realize the fundamental principles of environmental law, such as the sustainable development, the polluter-pays principle, and the precautionary principle. Also, you need get a skill to realize statues and to read judicial decisions precisely.
(Doctoral Program) You are expected to write a doctoral thesis in relation to the legal system of environmental regulation. I have studied environmental law with the background of administrative law. So I think that I can help you to write a good thesis if you search the environmental regulation of pollution or nature protection. You are to analyze cases and materials taking fundamental principles of environmental law like the sustainable development, the polluter-pays principle, and the precautionary principle. Comparative study is required.
Research Area: Sustainable Development
For economic and social development, reforms have been implemented in many developing and transition economies. Efforts have been also made to alleviate poverty in developing countries and to reduce income disparity and environmental degradation in the middle income countries. Japan has gone through the challenges for economic and social development by introducing reform measures. We empirically evaluate economic and social reform measures of specific economies including Japan to derive general policy implications.
There also exist the problems in economic and social development that cannot be overcome only by reforms. Taking an example of the food economy, demand side challenges have been emerging in food and natural resource markets. Conflicts have been observed for energy security and food security goals in land use for energy and food crop production. We attempt to understand global food and resource challenges and to analyze the conditions for avoiding conflicts and achieving sustainable development objectives.
Research Area: Sustainable Development
The course provides guidance from a sociological perspective on social phenomena and social problems associated with development and the environment. It covers the invisible, secondary, and medium- and long-term impacts on local communities and residents when implementing of infrastructure projects such as dams and high-speed railways, the interactions between different stakeholders, and the social consensus according to the local context. This also includes an analysis of lifestyles, values and discourses on development and the environment. On the above issues, postgraduate students will be trained in social research skills such as interviewing and participatory observation, with a focus on both global trends and local community realities. Empirical research focusing on Japan, China and other Asian countries will be particularly encouraged.
Research Area: Public and Social Policy
This course aims to understand econometric methods used for program (policy) evaluation and apply those methods to problems in social sciences. In the first year, students are expected to learn graduate-level econometrics and its related fields depending on their interests. After obtaining basic knowledge, students start working on their research projects related to program evaluation.
Research Area: Public and Social Policy
(Master’s Program) In this seminar, students receive research guidance on Game Theory and how to theoretically analyze situations where among multiple agents, individual agents affect each other. Students will learn two approaches to game theory: one where each agent makes decisions individually and one where each agent cooperates with one another to come to a decision. While presenting on existing research and having constant discussions, students will be able to find a dissertation topic and complete it. Existing research materials will mostly be in English.
(Doctoral Program) In this seminar, students receive research guidance on Game Theory and how to theoretically analyze situations where among multiple agents, individual agents affect each other. In particular, the theme of our research would be to design a desirable economic mechanism from the game theory viewpoint. In addition to gaining an accurate understanding of existing academic research (including an understanding of mathematical proofs), students will also gain the ability to write an original dissertation through constant discussion. Existing research materials will mostly be in English. Students will also be provided with guidance on how to present research results at international conferences and publish papers in an international journal.
Research Area: Employment/Industrial Relations, Labor Movement, Cooperative Movement, Labor History, Labor Politics
This supervisor will welcome students who are interested in comparative and historical studies of employment/industrial relations, labor movement, cooperative movement, labor history, labor politics.
Research Area: Public and Social Policy
(Master’s Program ) The aim of this research field is to examine philosophical problems of the social sciences. To do original research for a master’s thesis, students are required to have knowledge about, and interests in, the philosophy of science and the social sciences. They also need to have a higher English proficiency to read and understand academic literature. Furthermore, those who are not native speakers of English would need to improve their English abilities, aiming to score above 100 in the TOEFL iBT test during the master’s program. Those who want to do social scientific research should apply to other research fields. Before applying to this research field, applicants are required to check research interests of the supervisor.
(Doctoral Program) The aim of this research field is to examine philosophical problems of the social sciences. To do original research for a doctoral dissertation, students are required to have knowledge about, and interests in, the philosophy of science and the social sciences. They also need to have a higher English proficiency to read and understand academic literature. Furthermore, those who are not native speakers of English would need to improve their English abilities, aiming to score above 100 in the TOEFL iBT test at their enrollment to, or during their early stages in, the doctoral program. This is necessary for writing a paper in English and having an academic discussion at an international conference. Those who want to do social scientific research should apply to other research fields. Before applying to this research field, applicants are required to check research interests of the supervisor.
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