Training legal minds that can contribute to society

The Department of Law aims to train law professionals who have acquired a thorough understanding of individual laws and the overall justice system.
Through the four-year program, students will develop a legal mind and become law professionals who can grapple with various legal problems that arise in the real world.


Department Characteristics

As part of the only College of Law in Okinawa, the Department of Law provides a specialized curriculum to train professionals with a solid grounding in law.

1. Students acquire a broad and deep understanding of law, relating to everyday life, business, international relations, and other fields.
2. Students develop a deep respect for social norms, and acquire a strong foundation of knowledge for dealing with corporate law and issues of compliance (the observance of laws and ordinances).
3. Students develop an international outlook, connecting Okinawa to the world, as a result of their understanding of international law, foreign law, and diplomacy.

The Department of Law aims to train individuals with legal minds that can logically and reasonably examine actual problems in society, and come up with flexible and appropriate solutions. The department therefore seeks individuals with the following characteristics:

1. Applicants who have a broad interest in and knowledge of the workings of society.
2. Applicants who can examine issues flexibly and logically, and who can clearly express their own opinions.
3. Applicants who can listen to various opinions and then put in the effort to arrive at appropriate solutions. For this reason, we seek motivated applicants with fortitude, high ambition and a strong sense of justice, and who are foundsuitable as described below.

In their first two years, students acquire a basic understanding of law by taking Introduction to Law and other required subjects that focus on the constitutional, civil, and criminal law code sections of the Six Codes (Japanese Constitution I, Civil Law General Provisions, and Introduction to Criminal Law). After this, students study the three remaining sections of the Six Codes (the commercial, civil procedure, and criminal procedure codes), in addition to other fields of law, such as administrative law, social law, international law, and legal theory. In addition, students can choose from various subjects in the field of political science, depending on their interests and critical concerns. Students are also required to take small group seminars, in which they research and present on their own topics of interest. In their first- and second-year seminars, students study broadly about problems in law and political science, and from their third year, they study more deeply about individual laws. Through this curriculum, the department aims to train professionals who can think and debate like lawyers.