Japanese Language Education

Following the formation of Keio University’s Department of Japanese Language Education in 1958, a course for training Japanese language educators was established in 1972. In 2007, it was restructured to form the postgraduate Japanese Language Education Program within the Department of Japanese Literature. Our main objective is to qualify professionals in the fields of the Japanese language and Japanese language education and equip them with specialized expertise. Our curriculum and research rest on the two main pillars of acquiring solid theoretical base knowledge of phonetics, phonology, grammar, vocabulary, graphemics, and orthography and putting this theoretical knowledge into practice. Another axiom of this program is to enable non-native speakers of Japanese to make active use of their language skills in order to adapt to Japanese social customs and meaningfully participate in cultural exchange. Moreover, because our academic faculty largely belong to the Keio University Center for Japanese Studies, postgraduate students are regularly provided with opportunities to acquire practical teaching experience in the form of teaching assistantships and otherwise.