Graduate Education

Program Overview

Education in the Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI

The Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI is an independent graduate university (the first of its kind in Japan) founded in 1988 with the aim of contributing to the creation and development of culture through education and research in academic theory and application. As a world-leading international graduate university, SOKENDAI operates in close partnership and collaboration with affiliated inter-university research institutes. The role of the inter-university research institutes and the world-class research environment they offer as centers of educational excellence is one of the most distinctive features of SOKENDAI.

To nurture PhDs who can tackle complex and interdependent issues arising in the context of ever-changing academic trends and the ever more pressing demands of modern society, it is necessary to develop a system that allows the flexible use of highly specialized resources across a wide range of disciplines. To achieve this goal, SOKENDAI has reorganized its educational structure and established the Graduate Institute for Advanced Studies on April 1, 2023. At the same time, the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics and the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature were incorporated into SOKENDAI as parent institutes to further enhance the educational environment.

Introduction of Global Environmental Studies Program

The Global Environmental Studies Program is based on international research projects promoted by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN). This interdisciplinary research with elements of transdisciplinarity utilizes a problem-solving approach in collaboration with society. The program is designed for students to gain knowledge and methodologies accumulated in the academic fields that constitute Global Environmental Studies and to become independent researchers who will engage in solving global environmental issues with their expertise. The program provides small-group education and research training in an environment conductive for cutting-edge research.

Doctoral Program: Three-year doctoral program
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy
Career Opportunities for Graduates:

  • Faculties engaged in education and research on environmental studies at universities and other institutions of higher education
  • Engineers, researchers, and support staff in environment-related fields at companies, government offices, national and public research institutes, local governments, international organizations, and NGOs
  • Researchers and curators at museums and other institutions

Doctorate Image that We Aim

Students will acquire knowledge and methodologies accumulated in their specialized academic fields within the academic fields that comprise Global Environmental Studies and then apply them to promote advanced research. Students are expected to gain a deep understanding of events and phenomena, take on unexplored challenges based on free inspiration, and aim to create new intellectual value. Students will gain the ability to utilize the diverse research environment at RIHN to disseminate highly universal academic results based on understanding and collaboration that is not limited by country, region, language, culture, gender, religion, and other aspects. To conduct comprehensive research on global environmental issues, which span a wide range of academic fields, students will tackle issues in specific fields from an interdisciplinary perspective while being grounded in their own expertise and acquire a transdisciplinary approach that contributes to the development of a wide range of academic disciplines, including co-creation of knowledge as necessary. Students will recognize the social significance and positioning of the academic research they conduct, act with a sense of ethics and responsibility as researchers, and promote research that contributes to solving global environmental problems.

List of Faculty Members

Notes：1. Expertise　2. Research topic　3. Research keyword(s)　4. Additional information

Cultural and Social Studies

Professor

OYAMA Shuichi

  1. Area Studies (Sub-Saharan Africa), Geography
  2. Building up organic material circulation system among urban and rural area
  3. Area Studies, Environmental Geography, Ecological Anthropology, Environmental Science
  4. https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/rihn/activities/project/detail/25/

Professor

KONDO Yasuhisa

  1. Archaeological geography, environmental sociology, Science of Team Science
  2. Research on archaeological geography of Arabia and community capability development based on the integration of open science and interdisciplinary co-creation theories
  3. Archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, geographic information, Open Team Science

Professor

NILES, Daniel

  1. Geography
  2. Human-environmental geography specializing in sustainability studies, material culture, and environmental knowledge.
  3. Human-environmental geography; sustainability studies; material culture; environmental humanities; sustainable agriculture
  4. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Niles

Professor

NAKAGAWA Yoshinori

  1. Future studies, qualitative research
  2. Research to solve problems that involve conflicts between current and future generations through field research on the practice of organizations and communities shaping their own long-term visions with global sustainability as a constraint, and the development of methodologies to support such practice
  3. Future Design
  4. Google Scholar

Professor

MATSUDA Motoji

  1. Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Sociology
  2. Conflict and dialogue between culture and science at field sites where global environmental issues arise, and exploration of convivial relationship between them
  3. Culture, Indigenous Knowledge, Community, Everyday Life World

Associate Professor

WONG, Grace

  1. Forest and natural resource economics, development studies
  2. Research focuses on social-environmental justice and politics of forest frontiers, social forestry and climate change.
  3. Forest and climate change, equity, critical policy studies, Southeast Asia, gender
  4. https://www.stockholmresilience.org/meet-our-team/staff/2018-03-06-wong.html

Physical Science

Professor

ASARI Misuzu

  1. Environmental engineering, Sound material-cycle society
  2. Waste management, 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) policies, Environmental management system at Universities, Environmental education
  3. Waste, 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), Environment

Professor

SHINJO Ryuichi

  1. Petrology and mineralogy, Isotope geochemistry
  2. Research on the geology and water cycle of coral reef islands and marine paleoenvironmental study using geochemical analyses
  3. Environmental tracer, isotope, geochemical cycle, resource utilization, Marine Paleoenvironment Restoration
  4. LINKAGE Project

Professor

TANIGUCHI Makoto

  1. Hydrology
  2. Research on issues linking a region and the earth such as the linkage between water, energy, and food, and climate change
  3. Water circulation, sustainability science, underground water, underground warming, resources and diversity

Professor

PATRA, Prabir K.

  1. Natural sciences, Environmental science, Agricultural sciences, Climate Change
  2. Air pollutant emissions, concentration and human health; Greenhouse gases emission and mitigation; Atmospheric models and observations
  3. Global environment, Climate change, Sustainable development
  4. Aakash Project

Associate Professor

SHIN Ki-Cheol

  1. Petrology, Geochemistry, Isotope geology
  2. Research on the environmental assessment of Global Environmental Studies by using traceability methods utilizing isotopic and geological information of metal elements
  3. Metal element isotope, geological information, traceability

Associate Professor

WATANABE Tsuyoshi

  1. Earth Environmental Sciences
  2. High-resolution reconstruction of resilient indigenous lifestyle in environmental changes to future
  3. Coral annual bands, High resolution paleoenvironment reconstruction, Drama and theater, Phenomenological reduction
  4. https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/rihn_e/activities/project/detail/26/

Life Science

Professor

SHOBAYASHI Mikitaro

  1. Agriculture and agri-environmental policies, Water resources policies, rural development, agricultural economics
  2. Research on policies to improve the relationship among agriculture, the environment, land and water resources
  3. Global environmental issues, the role of the recognized community in the creation of agri-environmental policies, multi-functions and agricultural trade policies

Professor

TAYASU Ichiro

  1. Isotope ecology, environmental isotope study
  2. Research on the relationship between organisms and the environment, ecosystems, and the global environment through stable isotope analysis of elements contained in organisms, water, and environmental samples, and research on environmental traceability (provenance and history estimation) based on isotopic information
  3. Stable isotope, ecology, food web, ecosystem, global environment
  4. https://www.environmentalisotope.jp

Professor

HAYASHI Kentaro

  1. Biogeochemistry, Soil Science
  2. Research on nitrogen cycling based on biogeochemical studies and integrating various fields for sustainable nitrogen use for future generations
  3. Nitrogen cycling, atmosphere, soil, atmosphere-land interaction
  4. https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/Sustai-N-able/en/index.html

Associate Professor

ISHII Reiichiro

  1. Theoretical ecology
  2. Research aimed at elucidating the sustainability of ecosystems and biodiversity and their conditions under multiple human activities using diverse ecosystem observation data and modeling methods
  3. Ecosystem/biodiversity sustainability, compound anthropogenic factors, mechanistic model