Five-Year Doctoral Program

Aim

This program aims at fostering specialized researchers by providing a 5-year intensive course. A quarter system is adopted, and this allows students to constructively acquire basic knowledge of economics as well as a wide range of analytical methods. This enables students to complete a Doctoral degree within 5 years (in 3 years at the earliest).
First, students are expected to learn basic economics systematically beyond specialized research areas, and then start research according to their research interest. Therefore, they can seek their flexible research theme beyond the lines between specialized research fields.

Requirements

1. The 5-year Doctoral Program focuses on methodology and adopts a quarter system. It allows students to obtain knowledge of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Game theory, Econometrics, and Mathematics for Economics from basic level to advanced level constructively and systematically to proceed to their own independent research.
2. The requirements students must meet to proceed to a Doctoral Program are as follows:
   (1) Pass all compulsory courses and elective compulsory courses with a grade above a certain level.
   (2) Meet the designated number of credits.
   (3) Submit a master’s thesis and pass
   (4) Pass an examination
3. Students must take an examination at the end of a Master’s course. This examination includes an assessment of grades of compulsory courses, an assessment of your master’s thesis and research plan and an oral examination. If you pass, you are permitted to proceed to a Doctoral Program and entitled to submit a doctoral thesis. If you do not pass, you are allowed to take the examination every 6 months. According to the result of the assessment of a master’s thesis and research plan, a master’s degree may be granted.
4. If you wish to leave this program and continue as a normal Master’s Program (Economics Course and Global Political Economy Course), credits obtained in this program are transferrable for the number of credits needed to the completion of the course as credits of a compulsory course or elective course according to the category of the credit you obtained.

Research Supervision

1. Workshops take place for students of this program every semester.
2. The purpose of workshops is to provide common and general knowledge of research methods such as how to read necessary research materials, how to find a research subject, and how to set a research question.
3. In workshops, information on each research area and new topics are provided to help students decide their research theme.
4. Students start participating in Research Guidance (seminar) with their supervisor from the second semester of the first year, where they are given advice on research materials and their research theme for the completion of a master’s thesis.

Courses Available, Requirements, and Course Registration Model

(1) Master’s Program Course List

(2)Master’s Program Requirements and Course Registration Model
Example: September AdmissionThe number of credits is shown in parentheses.

Roadmaps for Researcher

Students looking to further pursue their research interests and become members of the scientific community have the opportunity to continue on to the Doctoral Program within the Graduate School of Economics. While enrolled, students will be actively encouraged to participate in academic conferences and submit their work to academic journals both within Japan and abroad. Those demonstrating outstanding scholastic achievements (publication in leading international peer-reviewed academic journals) can apply for early graduation, making it possible to earn a Ph.D. (complete both the Master’s and Doctoral Program) in as little as three years. Students with a passion for research will thus find that the Graduate School of Economics is set up to support them in pushing themselves to the full extent of their potential to reach their academic goals.