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Graduate Education

Program Overview

　

Education in the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI

The Graduate University 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 world-class research environment which the inter-university research institutes offer is the most distinctive feature 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 2023. At the same time, RIHN was incorporated into SOKENDAI as parent institutes to launch Global Environmental Studies Program.

Introduction of Global Environmental Studies Program

The Global Environmental Studies Program is based on the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), a constitutional member of the National Institutes for Humanities (NIHU). RIHN strives for the realization of an equitable, fair and sustainable society globally by formulating how the relationship of people and nature to be, from the community to global scale. To realize this vision, it leads the way in the comprehensive study of the environment that aims for a practice directed towards solving global environmental problems and a fundamental and inclusive understanding of the mutual interaction of humans and nature, based on interdisciplinary research that fuses humanities, social science and natural science and as well as transdisciplinary research that cooperates and collaborates with society. In such a research environment of RIHN, this program is designed to train independent researchers who set research agenda and conduct research based on their own expertise. To encourage students to gain knowledge and methodologies accumulated in the academic fields that constitute Global Environmental Studies, the program provides small-group education and research training based on advanced theories, methods, and practices.

This program offers a three-year doctoral program for students who have obtained a master's degree. Students in this program study and conduct research at RIHN in Kyoto.

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

Aims for Doctoral Candidates

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
DWYER, Janet Caroline
  1. Policy analysis, agri-rural economics, sustainable development, participatory action research
  2. Satoyama reconnections via sustainable agriculture, environment and rural development policies and practice
  3. Transition, resilience, living labs, transdisciplinary teamwork, rural land-use, policy analysis and development
  4. https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/rihn_e/activities/project/detail/24.html
Professor（Chair）
KONDO Yasuhisa
  1. Archaeological geography, Transdisciplinary methodologies
  2. Currently setting up international joint research projects on (1) the submerged landscape of Japanese archipelago during the late Pleistocene, (2) the archaeological geography of southeastern Arabia, and (3) the uniqueness of transdisciplinary research in Japan
  3. Archaeology, Palaeogeography, Geographical information science, Socio-ecological practice research
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
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
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_e/activities/project/detail/25.html
Professor
YOSHIKAWA Narumi
  1. Agricultural Economics, Japan Environmental Studies
  2. Focusing on environmental issues at the boundary between humans and nature, which is becoming increasingly homogenized, analyzes social acceptability regarding ecological values latent in traditional and indigenous knowledge in Japan, and explores future possibilities for humans and nature.
  3. Japan Environmental Studies, Ecosystem, Understanding Environment through Culture
Associate Professor
AKIYAMA Tomohiro
  1. Environmental studies, cosmology, anthropological studies, civilization studies
  2. Integral studies and integral practices for humanity and nature
  3. Planetary health; integral exploration of self and world, self-transcendence, cosmic correlation
  4. https://linktr.ee/akiyamat

Physical Science

Professor（Vice-chair）
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
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
Associate Professor
NGUYEN, Tien Hoang
  1.  Geoinformatics, Human Ecology, Planetary Health
  2. Research on identifying feasible solutions to improve human well-being and equity while safeguarding the environment
  3. Socio-environmental footprints, Indigenous peoples, Biodiversity conservation, Remote sensing, Spatial data science
Associate Professor
SHIN Ki-Cheol
  1.  Petrology, Geochemistry, Isotope geology
  2. Research on the environmental assessment of global environmental studies, utilizing traceability methods based on isotopic and geological information of metallic 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.html
Associate Professor
YASUMOTO Jun
  1.  Hydrology, Agricultural Engineering
  2. Land-sea interaction through the hydrological cycle and assessment of the impact of climate change and changes in social structure on natural resources (e.g., water resources, fisheries resources, etc.) that straddle land and sea
  3. Salt Water Intrusion, Submarine groundwater discharge, Coral reef ecosystem, Integrated water resource management

Mathematical and Information Science

Professor
FUKAZAWA Keiichiro
  1. Upper Atmosphere, High performance computing, Numerical simulation
  2. Research on space weather, atmospheric temperature, and animal behavior using numerical simulation
  3. Numerical simulation, Space plasma, Massively parallel computing, IoT, Power saving 

Life Science

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
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
SUDO Tomonori
  1. Environmental Economics, Environmental Policy, International Cooperation Policy
  2. Sustainability of environmental value and strategies for its utilization in economic and social growth, marketization of environmental value and its application to finance
  3. Green Growth, Environmental Market Creation, Environmental Finance
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
Associate Professor
HONGO Shun
  1. Conservation science, Wildlife management, Mammal ecology, Primatology
  2. Development of wildlife monitoring and hunting management based on local knowledge and science
  3. Wildlife conservation, Rainforest, Expertise, Camera trap
  4. FASHLOKS Project(https://sites.google.com/kyoto-u.ac.jp/rihn-hunting-project/english-home)
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
Associate Professor
TAMURA Norie
  1. Agricultural, forestry, and fishery policy, Commons theory, Sustainability science
  2. Agriculture and forestry coexisting with diverse living organisms and the land use that supports it
  3. Value of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, Small-scale agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, Degrowth, Pluralistic world

Current students

Number of Students in the Program（as of April 1, 2026）

  Domestic International Total
1st year 5 1 6
2nd year 0 1 1
3rd year 5 1 6
Total 10 3 13
Name Research subject
ASANO Kiri The process of acceptance of disaster among young people through theater activities after the Great East Japan Earthquake
SHIGESADA Nako Dialogue across Diverse Environmental Worlds: Toward Personal Engagement with Global Environmental Issues
TANAKA Moena Development of value-sharing tools and educational programs using an airdome planetarium
MITSUOKA Nobuhiro Transmission and creation of indigenous knowledge: an empirical study on educational models using digital archives of native species
MIYAJI Kohei Connections between local livelihoods and coral reef ecosystems in the southern Mexican Caribbean
FERNANDEZ, Aksha Uncovering Unequal Relations in the Global South through a Study of the Indian Garment Industry: A Step towards Degrowth via Social-Environmental Justice.
NGUYEN, Bich Ngoc     "Think Globally, Act Locally": A Study of agricultural heritage management ㏌ Japan
GOMEZ GONZALEZ, Juanita Enhancing Wildlife Governance in Puerto Nariño: Addressing Stakeholder Values and Governance Gaps for Sustainable Management
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