Social Area / Sociology Program

The crises facing contemporary Japanese society can be more clearly understood by examining the situation in local communities. This course will utilize statistics and visual materials to address issues such as population decline, changes in industrial structure and reliance on foreign workers and technical trainees, over-concentration in Tokyo, and declining rural communities, while also exploring paths to the revitalization of local communities.

From a sociological perspective, this course addresses various issues related to "family" and "gender" in contemporary Japan, including love and marriage, dual-income families, divorce/remarriage, declining birthrate and aging population, and LGBTQ+ issues. In the spring semester, students will determine their research themes through literature reading and discussion. In the fall semester, they will conduct research activities individually or in groups on their chosen themes. Finally, at the end of the academic year, a seminar paper collection will be compiled as a result of the learning and research conducted throughout the year.

I chose sociology as my major and environmental studies as my minor. The reason is that they are connected to the profession I want to pursue. I want to become a civil servant, specifically a city hall employee. I am particularly interested in issues related to family and gender, and I believe that learning about various family structures in Japan and abroad, as well as acquiring knowledge and perspectives on gender, will be very useful in my future role as a city hall employee, where I can support each and every citizen. Furthermore, the global environment is closely intertwined with our lives, so it is not something we can ignore. I want to utilize what I learn in environmental studies in a job that will improve the lives of people in the future.

After entering College of Arts and Sciences and being exposed to various academic fields, I chose sociology as the field I was most interested in, so I chose the major. The deciding factor was that I was attracted to the method of discovering problems from a sociological perspective. The reason I chose Japanese studies as a minor was that I believed that focusing on Japan, re-examining familiar environments that are usually overlooked, and questioning the "norms" would deepen the learning gained at the major. For those choosing a major or minor in the future, we recommend first broadening your academic knowledge and identifying the field that you find most appealing to.