University of the Ryukyus

Dean MAEKADO Akira

The aims of the Faculty of Law and Letters are to help students to gain a broad perspective, to obtain specialized knowledge, to have a positive international outlook, and to develop a sound and wellbalanced personality.

Our faculty is comprised of three departments: Comprehensive Social Systems Studies, Human Sciences, and Languages and Cultures.

The Department of Comprehensive Social Systems Studies offers three majors: Law, Economics, and Political Science and International Relations. The department offers a wide range of courses in each specific area of study.

The Department of Human Sciences is comprised of three majors: Human Behavior, Sociology, and Regional Sciences. The department offers a variety of courses in Psychology, Philosophy and Ethics, Sociology, Social Welfare, Mass Communications, Social Anthropology, Ethnology, History, Human Geography, Geographical Information Science, and Physical Geography.

The Department of Languages and Cultures provides three majors: Ryukyuan and Asian studies, English Language and Culture and European Culture and Literature. The department offers both traditional courses as well as interdisciplinary classes, in which disciplines such as linguistics, literature, history, and cultures of the West and Asia are integrated systematically and organically. Also, in English Language and Culture, there is a major entitled Japan and International Affairs, which is intended for international students.

Furthermore, the Department of Comprehensive Social Systems Studies and the Department of Languages and Cultures offer classes for adult and working students in evening programs as well.

A five-year collaborative research project, titled “Human Migration and the 21st Century Global Society”, is under way. In addition to the University of the Ryukyus, universities and research institutions in the U.S., South America, China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, and Pacific Islands participate in this international project, of which the Faculty of Law and Letters is the core.

This project is partially aimed at training students of the doctor program and constructing a foundation for the University of the Ryukyus to become one of the centers of the international netwaork of Ryukyuan/Okinawan studies. This project also collaborates with the International Institute of Okinawan Studies established at the University of the Ryukyus in April, 2009.