In August 2017, Osaka University established provosts and strategic committees to realize swift decision-making and optimize university administrative efficiency under the leadership of the president. For an agile management system, two executive vice presidents are named as provosts: a senior executive vice president of university management and a senior executive vice president of education and research. The strategic committees are roughly divided into 3 groups each according to a branch of science: social sciences, engineering sciences, and life sciences.

At committee meetings, which serve as places for cross-border communication and collaboration, members are engaged in the planning of strategies and approaches for increasing administrative efficiency.

Japan

Suita, Japan

Osaka University - Osaka

Aesthetics aims to understand aesthetic thought in terms of its various connections with the arts. One of the faculty’s current interests is how the discipline of aesthetics relates to everyday life. The discussions that have developed within the aesthetic discipline are effective tools when considering art that defies categorization, and also serve as a guide when thinking about the history of design.

On-Campus

BA in Aesthetics and Science of Literary Arts

Archaeology is the study of the histories and cultures of humankind, centered on analyses of material resources like historic ruins and relics. This course’s didactic and research focus is Japanese archaeology, taking advantage of the university’s geographical location in the Kinki region, which has been home to various capitals throughout Japanese history. Annual field surveys are a major feature of the course. In recent years, students have participated in excavation surveys of keyhole-shaped tombs from the Kofun era and kilns from the Heian period.

BA in Archaeology

Art history is split into two territories: the history of art in Japan and the East, and Western art history. The department is currently home to five full-time and associate professors as well as one scholar from the Museum of Osaka University who works concurrently as a lecturer, all of whom offer a wide variety of classes for students. The program at Osaka University is one of the most substantial art history courses in the country.

BA in Art History

This course is one of the only programs in Japan that simultaneously covers three significant areas of history: China, Northern/Central Eurasia, and Southeast/maritime Asia. The course has produced world-class research concerning society, economics, and the law in China from the early modern period to the present day; the history of Central Eurasia during the period from the Chinese Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Mongolian Empire; the medieval and early modern periods in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, in particular); and maritime relations in East/Southeast Asia. Emphasis is placed on local fieldwork in addition to historical sources. The course stands at the forefront of the movement to reform history education, which includes giving Asian history education its proper place in the international academic community.

BA in Asian History

The Chinese literature major is a relatively recent addition to the course list at Osaka University. It comprises the study of literature and various issues to do with people, such as the politics, economics, history, language, philosophy, and arts of the classical period. While the course respects the tradition of Chinese studies, it offers students a fresh and energetic approach to the subject.

BA in Chinese Literature

Chinese philosophy – of which the Hundred Schools of Thought is representative – offers profound insight into the world and human nature and has majorly influenced culture formation in East Asia, including in Japan. Students in this major study the important Confucian, Taoist, legal, and military thinkers who contributed to the formation of Chinese thought. In addition to classical works, they revisit commonly accepted theories in light of new materials discovered in recent excavations.

BA in Chinese Philosophy

Comparative Literature is a discipline focusing primarily on how modern Western and Japanese literature have influenced each other. However, the discipline goes further than merely cataloging the influence of specific works in the sense of a “balance sheet” or ingredients label. In the study of comparative literature, one is required to critique the major premise of globalization in literature, which was born out of the need to accept the modern literature of “the West” as well as resistance to globalization and the distinctive changes that have emerged as a result.

BA in Comparative Literature

Students majoring in Anglo-American literature will receive a general overview of the world of English-language literature with a central focus on Britain and America, as well as the characteristics of different genres and their formation and development from a range of cultural perspectives. This foundation serves as a basis to consider specific works, including novels, poetry, plays, and criticism. As they refine their literary sensibilities, students develop their abilities to read literary works with accuracy and precision as well as analyze the methodology of literary studies. Students are given the freedom to choose their research topics based on their interests, which they pursue as a graduate thesis.

BA in English and American Literature and English Linguistics

In the field of Ethics, or moral philosophy, academics consider how people live and act in society. The discipline covers a wide range of issues including life, the soul or moral conscience, self and others, education, social and personal welfare, justice, violence, sex, gender, minorities, and more. Students who engage with these issues build on a foundation of literary research in philosophy and history of ethics from a range of eras and geographies to develop their reading and critical thinking abilities. It is also important for them to cultivate the skills necessary to confront the problems emerging in society and in dialog with people from different fields.

BA in Ethics

It is difficult to determine the geographical limits of Western history. While nobody would disagree that the history of Europe is the central component, Oriental and Mediterranean civilizations also considerably influenced Western civilization. From the 16th century, Europeans also began to advance into North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, where they either transplanted their civilizations or intensely impacted the traditional peoples of those areas, as has been well documented.

BA in European and American History

From medieval fables and magical stories of chivalry to the 20 th century’s Sartre and Foucault such as today’s Modiano or Houellebecq, French literature has always been at the forefront and a major influence on world literature and thought. Students taking this course will study the allure of French literature from various perspectives. The course has been designed to satisfy a wide array of interests. Lectures and classes cover the medieval period through the modern age as well as the full range of genres, including novels, poetry, plays, philosophy, and French linguistics.

BA in French Literature

The complex currents of German literary tradition first appeared in the 18 th century with works from great writers such as Goethe and the Grimm Brothers, followed by Thomas Mann and Brecht, and later enriched by the writings of German Jews like Kafka and Freud. In a broad sense, this literary “flow” denoted a social and cultural phenomenon and the changes of an historic German-speaking area in Europe.

BA in German Literature

Human geography is the study of the relationships between people and their environment and region. This field contains a variety of perspectives with important keywords, including environment, region, space, landscape, place, network, and flow. Students taking this course analyze and consider the relationship between people and their environment as well as people and space using a variety of models and frameworks. Students will develop their knowledge base and gain skills throughout the course, learning in lectures about the perspectives and methodologies of previous research.

BA in Human Geography

Students in this major will study various areas of Indian thought and religion, including Buddhism. Specifically, a core part of study will consist of reading works written primarily in Sanskrit and its derivatives (such as Pali). Although to beginners, Sanskrit may appear challenging, it is a clear-cut language. In a “logical” world, Indian philosophy’s use of such a precise language makes language study a suitable tool to sharpen one’s critical and logical thinking as well as develop one’s ability to identify and resolve issues faced by modern society.

BA in Indian Philosophy

In 1854, Japan surrendered to the might of Commodore Perry’s Black Ships with the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa, ending the country’s long isolation under sakoku . Proving that such a famous event actually took place requires unearthing numerous historical documents and going through various different steps. To then contextualize the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa within the broad framework of East Asia may bring to light new aspects that differ from previous understanding.

BA in Japanese History

This course covers the three fields of Contemporary Japanese Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Applied Japanese Linguistics. Contemporary Japanese Linguistics approaches Japanese as one of many languages and aims to empirically analyze its systems of grammar, vocabulary, phonemes, and transcription. Sociolinguistics considers and analyzes the diversity of the Japanese language as it presently exists in modern society—including differences in language according to region (dialect), age, or setting—as well as the resulting linguistic and social issues.

BA in Japanese Linguistics

This course covers all periods and genres of Japanese literature, starting with waka poetry, Sino-Japanese poetry of the early modern period, the monogatari style of literature (e.g., The Tale of Genji )), setsuwa , and essays from ancient and medieval times. This course also includes the study of haikai poetry, ukiyo-z ōshi , yomihon , as well as the literature of the modern period, ranging from Meiji-era voices, like Higuchi Ichiyō and Natsume Sōseki, to contemporary literature. This course prioritizes students’ acquisition of basic techniques, such as bibliographical knowledge, which is required to handle literary sources such as old manuscripts, Japanese bound books, and letters.

BA in Japanese Literature and Japanese Historical Linguistics

What images come to mind when you think about “Japanese studies”? It can be quite hard to visualize in comparison to other majors, like literature and history. This is because Japanese studies aims to engage in cross-disciplinary research and education. Students taking this course will cast aside their pre-existing perceptions of Japan to approach the topic using a range of methods and perspectives including Japanese history, folklore, anthropology, cultural study, research into gender and sexuality, and representation analysis.

BA in Japanese Studies

The musicology curriculum covers a wide range of topics, including art music, traditional music, and popular music around the world. We investigate not only the musical sound itself but also its cultural and intellectual contexts that inform the specific musical practice. The theater studies curriculum not only covers Japanese classical plays and modern Western theater, works that are considered “theater” in the narrow sense of the term, but also goes beyond that definition to explore cinema, opera, musicals, dance, and performing arts from around the world.

BA in Musicology and Theatre Studies

Philosophy lies at the foundation of other fields. It asks questions such as: What is existence? What is “meaning”? Why is it that the only “mutual confirmation” that can be achieved is a recognition that different opinions exist? Why, when there are no “right answers” or “ultimate explanations,” doesn’t reality crumble and history end? Moreover, does this type of questioning come from the heart, the mind, or elsewhere? Philosophy tackles such questions. It is so foundational to who we are that, even now, no other field can replace it.

Osaka University - Osaka

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