The home institution must select and nominate students to Waseda Law School (hereinafter, WLS) according to the provisions of its exchange agreement with Waseda University.

The home institution must submit the following documents by March 31 for the nominated students. The Japanese government requires these documents for the application for the immigration certificate, “Certificate of Eligibility.” Please note that nominees under exchange programs are exempted from the Waseda application fee (25,000 yen).

The WLS International Exchange Committee will examine applications and other documents. It is understood that nominations by the home institution will be honored under normal circumstances as long as required documents are submitted by the due date. Following acceptance by the Committee, WLS will send accepted students a “Letter of Acceptance” and information about Waseda and related matters in mid-May. The information sent by WLS will include: the name of a faculty member selected as the academic adviser for each student, initial orientation information, accommodations, etc. At the same time, WLS will apply to the Tokyo Immigration Office for the “Certificate of Eligibility” for each student required to obtain a student visa.

It takes about four to eight weeks for WLS to receive the "Certificate of Eligibility" for each student from the Tokyo Immigration Office. Upon receiving the certificates, WLS will forward them to the program coordinator of the home institution by express and registered airmail. WLS expects to send these certificates in August under normal circumstances. The program coordinator is expected to maintain each student’s summer mailing address so that the “Certificate of Eligibility” will reach the student without delay. The student may apply for a student visa at a Japanese Consulate only with a "Certificate of Eligibility" and a valid passport.

(Unit: yen)

* The amounts indicated are approximate fees, given that students will apply for the National Health Insurance Plan (Kokumin Kenkou Hoken) in Japan.

If you have any questions on these matters, please do not hesitate to contact:
Mr. Makoto Inoue, Administrative Officer
Waseda Law School
Phone: +81 3 5286 1678, Fax: +81 3 5286 1720
E-mail: law-school@list.waseda.jp

Most WLS courses are two-credit courses taught for fifteen weeks. Each class meets once a week, for 90 minutes per session. Those students who plan to attend WLS only during the fall semester of the home institution will be allowed to finish their study at WLS by the last class in December and earn full-semester credits for enrolled courses. Appropriate methods of evaluation will be arranged in order to compensate for the missed January classes in consultation with the exchange coordinator of the home institution.

The list of full-time faculty members of WLS can be found here. Waseda University offers a wide range of law courses and is proud of its curriculum of legal studies, one of the most innovative in Japan. Exchange students may take any course offered by these faculty members. The WLS International Exchange Committee will choose an appropriate faculty member as an academic adviser for each exchange student according to the research interest indicated on the student’s application form. The exchange student is advised to communicate with the academic adviser before leaving his/her home country, so that the academic adviser will be able to make arrangements with faculty members whose courses the student may wish to take.

WLS courses are mainly designed for Japanese students who will pursue a professional career in the practice of law. Exchange students may find the content of these courses too specialized for their purpose of legal study abroad. If the instructor of a given law school course deems it more appropriate, the exchange student may be advised to take, in lieu of a law school course, a more general undergraduate course offered at the Faculty of Law or a graduate course offering a more academic approach to comparative legal studies offered at the Graduate School of Law, as long as the same instructor teaches the undergraduate course or the graduate course.
Almost all WLS courses are taught in Japanese. Given the fact that some exchange students wish to take a few courses conducted in English, WLS will offer four courses in English in the fall semester of 2004. These courses are:

“Modern Japanese Law,” jointly taught by Professors Yoichiro Hamabe, Satoru Shinomiya, Takao Suami, and Toshiro Ueyanagi,
“Japanese Legal Culture,” jointly taught by Professors Hiroshi Asako, Shigeo Miyagawa, and Yoshitaka Wada
“International Trade Law,” taught by Professor Akio Shimizu
“Comparative Finance Law,” taught by Professor Takashi Kubota.

The instructor of each course will use a method of evaluation appropriate for the given course and an exchange student. Methods may include written examinations, oral examinations, or a research paper of approximately 20 double-spaced pages for two credits. Either Japanese or English may be used. If an exchange student wishes to write a substantial research paper of more than 40 double-spaced pages for an additional two credits, he/she may take “Special Study on Japanese Law: Supervised Research Paper” offered at the Graduate School of Law. This arrangement may be made through his/her faculty adviser with the consent of a supervising faculty member.

WLS will send official transcripts to the home institution for fall semester courses by the end of January, and for spring semester courses by the end of August.