Rediscover Ryukyuan, Okinawan, and Japanese culture and share your discoveries with the world!

In the Department of Japanese Language and Culture, students deepen their knowledge of Japanese, Ryukyuan, and Okinawan cultures, including language, literature, and the performing arts, as well as practical skills for today’s globalized world. Students also hone various skills and sensibilities needed to share Okinawan and Japanese culture with today’s increasingly globalized world: information and communications technology
(ICT) skills, the ability to understand local communities, and foreign-language communication skills. In addition, students aim to become language professionals through repeated training in reading, writing, and speaking, so they acquire culture, critical thinking and expression skills, and a capacity for self-realization. As a result, they become self-reliant and productive adults, professionals, and world citizens.


Department Characteristics

The department provides students with a broad and deep study of the cultures of Okinawa (Ryukyu) and Japan and helps them acquire the knowledge, skills, and sensibility needed to describe and share that knowledge with the global community.

1.  Explore Okinawa and Japan’s language, literature, and performing arts.
2.  Learn to research, read, evaluate, and express ideas through active learning and individualized instruction in small-group seminars.
3.  At the Writing Center, students can receive one-to-one personalized instruction on their writing.
4.  Acquire the basic work, ICT, and linguistic skills needed to competently deal with any situation that may arise in a business setting.
5.  Receive training to become accomplished and respected junior high and high school teachers.
6.  Receive training to become effective Japanese-language teachers in this era of globalization and multiculturalism.
7.  The department offers the only library and information science seminar in the prefecture for training students to become library specialists.

The Department of Japanese Language and Culture pursues the educational goal of furthering scholarship into Japanese, Okinawan, and Ryukyuan culture. Specifically, the department carries out theoretical and practical education focusing on language and literature to train intelligent professionals who are deeply aware of their roles in the local, online, and global communities, who can enthusiastically perform in society, and who possess analytical ability, computer skills, the power of expression, communicative competence, and the ability to coexist with others.
In accord with the above-stated goal and the university’s admission policy, the department seeks applicants with the following qualities:

1.  A desire to independently learn about language and literature, focusing on Japanese, Ryukyuan, and Okinawan cultures. and various types of communication required in the global era.
2.  The basic academic ability needed to further pursue one’s study in those areas mentioned in the previous point.
3.  The basic skills of thinking, judgment, and expression (including reading comprehension) necessary to solve various problems that arise in local, international, multicultural, and online societies.

The Department of Japanese Language and Culture offers a curriculum that helps students acquire specialized knowledge Japanese. Okinawan, and Ryukyuan culture, and cross-cultural communication while also helping them to become educated, well-rounded individuals. The department offers over 100 subjects. In addition to its specialized subjects, the department offers classes for acquiring teacher, librarian, school librarian, or Japanese-language teacher licenses or certifications.