(East Asia Sustainable Development Course; former East Asia International Human Resource Development Course)
This course is designed to provide international students with both advanced academic knowledge and practical skills to deal with the East Asian economy issues and challenges for its sustainable development.
Application Form for 2013 Master’s Programme (MS Word format) / (PDF format) CLOSED
Form for the 2013 Master’s Programme Application “for those who hold Japanese Nationality or Permanent Resident Status in Japan” (application period is from 10 May to 21 June 2013)
Form for the 2013 Doctor’s Programme Application “for all” (application period is from 10 May to 7 June 2013)
Course Description
There are a number of challenges that East Asia (including both Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia) must address if it is to maintain its economic role as one of the leader of the world. These include challenges relating to environmental stability, food and energy supplies, uneven development between agricultural and industrial sectors, widening income disparities and aging populations, and accountability of government and business sectors. Human resource development is crucial in meeting these developmental challenges.
The course is designed to provide international students with both advanced academic knowledge and practical skills. The master’s programme offers both basic and advanced subjects through which students can enjoy a comprehensive curriculum. In addition to classes designed specifically for this programme, students will participate in selected subjects at the Graduate School of Economics as well as other graduate schools. In an international setting, students will develop the academic knowledge and practical skills. Students will have many opportunities to conduct field research at diverse sites such as large manufacturing plants and small factories, cutting‐edge businesses and rural farming communities throughout East Asia so that students can develop a multidisciplinary and critical sense of reality. These are all needed to contribute to sustainable development in East Asia as academic researchers, government officials, or social entrepreneurs.
Course List for the 2013 Spring Semester(updated)
Course Syllabus for the 2013 Spring Semester
Application Procedures
(for the Master’s Programme starting from October 2013)
Number of Applicants to be Admitted:
- Approximately 8 students are admitted to the course.
- The top 4 students of them selected through the application and selection procedure [A] are eligible to receive the Japanese Government (Ministry of Education and Science) scholarship.
- Other successful applicants beyond these 4 need to be privately funded or apply for other scholarship by themselves. Those who still have the will to enrol the course are required to go through another procedure [B].
Eligibility for Application:
- Applicants must be preferably graduates of universities that have international academic exchange agreements with Kyoto University or the Graduate School of Economics. Otherwise applicants are required to contact a faculty member of the Graduate School of Economics through their supervisors before submitting application.
- Those who are currently studying in Japan are not eligible for application.
- Applicants who are enrolled or were enrolled at universities in China, Hong Kong or Taiwan are required to go through the screening process by Admissions Assistance Office (AAO). Please see following web page for more detail. (http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/cn/c_notice/ku-aao.htm)
Application and Selection Procedure [A]:
- The application period is from 10 December 2012 to 18 January 2013. A set of application documents must be sent to a contact person (faculty member) at the Graduate School of Economics, who will then submit the documents to the School Affairs Office of the Graduate School of Economics.
- After examining the application documents, a team of faculty staff will interview each candidate via Skype in the beginning of February. Those selected will be informed of the decision in the middle of February. All procedures will be done in English.
- Four students out of those admitted to the course are eligible to receive the Japanese Government scholarship. The eligibility includes a minimum level of GPA set by the Ministry of Education and Science. Those selected are recommended to the Japanese Government as candidates for the Scholarship. The Japanese Government examines the documents of the applicants recommended by Kyoto University and selects the recipients of the Japanese Government Scholarship. Those selected will be informed of this decision by the end of June.
- Applicants from the countries which do not have any official diplomatic relations with Japan such as Taiwan, Palestine are not eligible to apply for the Japanese Government Scholarship.
- Application documents to be submitted:
- Application Form
- Curriculum Vitae
- Research plan at Kyoto University, written either in Japanese or English (3 photocopies). Maximum three A4 pages. The plan must include reason for application, research plan, and plan after completion.
- Transcript of Academic Record of undergraduate study from the institute previously attended. In case the original transcript is in languages other than Japanese and English, a translated document in Japanese or English must be attached. See also Note.
- Certificate of graduation from the institute previously attended. If you are a currently enrolled student, please include a certificate of expected graduation. In case the original certificate is in languages other than English and Japanese, a translated document in English or Japanese must be attached.
- Letter of recommendation from an applicant’s supervisor, the Dean or the head of the institute attended.
- Reference paper such as graduation thesis or an equivalent paper (3 photocopies). If the paper is written in languages other than Japanese and English, a translated summary in Japanese or English must be attached.
- If available, applicants whose first language is other than English are required to submit a photocopy of official notice of TOEFL, TOEIC, or IELTS scores taken within two years before the application deadline.
Application and Selection Procedure [B]:
- Those who achieve a passing score on the documentary/interview examination but left out of the selection for the scholarship will be exempted from taking additional examinations to enrol the course. However, examination fee (JPY30,000), admission fee (JPY282,000), and tuition fee (JPY535,800/year) need to be paid. Detailed instructions will be given to the those successful applicants in the middle of February.
- Only after the examination fee is paid by the due date, those successful applicants can request a letter of acceptance in case of need to apply for other scholarships. Examination fee is not refundable in any case.
Application and Selection Procedure [C]:
- Just in case there would be vacancies after the above selection processes, application procedures will be open to those who are studying in Japan (e.g. research student at Kyoto University).
- There have been no selection under this procedure for 2012-2013 program.
| Number of students (by country) enrolled in the EA International Course | |
| Oct 2009 | China 5 |
| Oct 2010 | Germany 1, Romania 1, Korea 1, China 2 |
| Oct 2011 | Korea 2, China 8 |
| Oct 2012 | Korea 1, Indonesia 1, Thailand 1, China 8 |
| Oct 2013 | Nepal 1, Indonesia 2, Egypt 1, China 5 (estimated as of April 2013) |
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Master’s Degree Requirements
- The Programme requires the minimum of 30 credits in the two‐year duration or more of study.
- 12 credits or more must be taken in Basic Subjects (8 credits of 5 compulsory subjects and 4 credits or more of optional subjects).
- 10 credits or more must be taken in Advanced Subjects A.
- Obligatory 8 credits will be given for Thesis Research.
- Note:
- You must consult your supervisor(s) for the appropriate subjects you are to take.
- For your Thesis Research to be qualified for 8 credits, it must be conducted under supervision of your supervisor(s) throughout the duration of your study.
- You can count the following credits as part of Advanced Subjects A: (i) those from subjects that you take in Basic Subjects over 12 credits, (ii) those from subjects that are not included in the list below but offered at the Graduate School of Economics; (iii) those from subjects offered at other Graduate Schools of Kyoto University; or (iv) those from subjects offered at other universities that have international academic exchange agreements with Kyoto University or Graduate School of Economics. In the cases of (ii), (iii) and (iv), you are required to get recommendation and approval from your supervisor(s).
- Credits taken from a same subject, whether it is offered by different instructors, can be counted only once, and the rest can be taken as surplus credits. You are allowed to take 20 credits or less from the subjects offered by a same instructor (including the above 8 credits for your Thesis Research). Those beyond this limit can be taken as surplus credits.
- Surplus credits cannot be used as part of your degree requirements.
- In addition to the above credit requirements, you are required to write a master’s dissertation which must be approved by your supervisor(s) and defended in a final oral examination in order to complete a Master’s degree.
| List of Master’s Theses submitted by the 2009 and 2010 Students |
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Doctor’s Degree Requirements
- To achieve Pre‐Doctoral certification (which qualifies a student to submit his/her Doctoral thesis for defence), the Programme requires the minimum of 24 credits in the three‐year duration.
- Obligatory 16 credits will be given for Thesis Research, which must be conducted under supervision of both your main and sub supervisors (8 credits from each supervisor).
- 8 credits or more must be taken in Advanced Subjects A and B, 2 credits or more of which must be taken in Advanced Subjects B. You can also count the following credits as part of Advanced Subjects A and B: (i) those from subjects that are not included in the list below but offered at the Graduate School of Economics; (ii) those from subjects offered at other Graduate Schools of Kyoto University; or (iii) those from subjects offered at other universities that have international academic exchange agreements with Kyoto University or Graduate School of Economics. In the cases of (i), (ii) and (iii), you are required to get recommendation and approval from your supervisor(s).
- You must submit your research plan and progress report every year. To achieve Pre‐Doctoral certification, you must submit the final report of your research achievements for the three years.
- After taking Pre‐Doctoral certification, you are required to indicate your intention to (or not to) continue in the programme in a form of documents before the middle of September. If you would not indicate any intention, you would be regarded to continue in the programme, and have to pay tuition fee.
- The duration must be within the maximum of six years, excluding the period of a leave of absence.
- In addition to the above credit requirements and Pre‐Doctoral certification, you are required to write a doctoral dissertation, which must be approved by the examining committee members (including your supervisors) and defended in a final oral examination in order to complete a Doctoral degree.
- Applicants who join our course as only Ph.D candidates usually are not qualified to get (MEXT) scholarship offered by Japanese government. However, there are possibilities to get some other private scholarships, about which you have to find out by yourself. Besides scholarships, we have some amount of budget to employ graduate students as teaching/research assistants that may financially support them.
Outlines of Some Courses
Field Research in Japan (Instructors: Natsuka Tokumaru, Emiko Inoue, Shuji Hisano, Takafumi Kurosawa, Hiromi Shioji, Hisako Inaba)
- The goal of the course is to help students understand better the current economic and social situation in Japan by participating in 3 or 4 field study trips to Japanese companies, government agencies, and other institutions. Each of the field study trips will include a pre-trip session and a post-trip discussion session, after which the students should submit research essays to the respective professor in charge.
- Places the students have visited include: Mitsubishi Material Corporation’s
Naoshima Smelter & Refinery (Kagawa), Kyoto City Central Wholesale Market (Kyoto), Nippon Paper Crecia Co.Ltd Kyoto Plant (Kyoto), Ezaki Glico Co.Ltd (Hyogo), Co-op Kobe (Hyogo), Aoi Machine Industry Co.Ltd (Shiga), Kubota Corporation (Osaka), Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. (Hyogo), Shimadzu Corporation’s Foundation Memorial Hall (Kyoto), Kyoto Prefecture Government (Kyoto), An NPO and local vegetable farmers (Nara), etc.
Research Design A (Instructor: Hisako Inaba)
- This course focuses on research methodology with particular emphasis on theory, method and practice of qualitative approach for the social sciences. Students in the course will learn the kind of research questions that is appropriate for the qualitative methods, how to carry out the method, and how to evaluate it. Class sessions will include collecting data based on one’s research question, transcribing them, and evaluating them. Students have to give a presentation on his/her data interpretations and write up a report at the end of the semester.
Introduction to East Asian Economics (Instructors: Go Yano, Tamotsu Nakano, Hiroshi Ohnishi)
- East Asia has various types of economies, for example transitional economy, planning economy, development economy and market economy. By introducing these economies, we learn that we need various types of approach including Marxist economics, transitional economics, and development economics. Therefore, instructors will not only introduce East Asian economies but also teach the basic points of such approaches.
Comparative Industry Policy (Instructors: Takafumi Kurosawa, Shuji Hisano)
- This course is aimed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of key issues and concepts of both industrial and agricultural policy development, and help students obtain a comparative and international perspective necessary to look into the future direction of sustainable development in the East Asian region. This course consists of two separate parts, offered on alternating weeks. The one is about international industrial policy given by Prof. Kurosawa, and the other is about international agricultural policy given by Prof. Hisano.
Readings on International Economics (Instructor: Dimiter Ialnazov)
- The aim of the course is to help the students acquire some fundamental knowledge of international economics and later, use that knowledge to understand the present situation of emerging economies. During the first part of the course we will study the basics of international trade, foreign capital flows, exchange rate regimes, and balance of payments. The second part of the course will include a comparison of various emerging economies in Europe, Latin America, and East Asia – for example, how have they dealt with the challenges of economic globalization since the early 1990s. In addition, we will examine the impact of today’s global financial crisis on emerging economies. We will also look at the history of some previous financial crises and compare them with the present one. After obtaining some basic knowledge about international economics and emerging economies, the students should be able to explore individual country cases or compare different country patterns of integration in the global economy in their term papers. The main findings of the term papers will be presented in class at the end of the course.
Firms and Industrial Organization in Japan (Instructors: Takashi Hikino, Asli M Colpan)
- The course is aimed to understand the competitive dynamics of Japanese industries and businesses. The topics focuses in the course include: Japanese enterprises in modern economic growth; management of Japanese enterprises; corporate governance and senior management; R&D investment and international competitiveness; employment and labor in Japanese enterprises; scale economies and the large enterprise system; small and medium-sized enterprises within the large enterprise system; characteristics of the growth pattern of Japanese enterprises; and where Japanese enterprises are heading for.
Comparative Development Studies (Instructors: Shuji Hisano, Raymond Jussaume Jr., and guest lecturers from various countries)
- This course will provide students with an overview of the last several decades of theoretical development in Development Studies leading up to, and including, a review of the concept of Sustainable Development.
Students will be encouraged to apply the theoretical material they master in this course to their own research interests. This course is designed for any and all students with an interest in cross-national and international
development, including students in the international graduate program “East Asia Sustainable Economic Development”. The primary language of instruction will be English, although Japanese could also be used during
the class if necessary.
Comparative Business Ethics (Instructor: Natsuka Tokumaru)
- In the recent decades, problems related to business ethics are getting increasing attention, particularly after the society faced the misconducts or scandals by some enterprises such as Enron’s accounting fraud, Sanlu’s milk scandal, Tokyo Electric Power Company’s failure in nuclear risk management. Enterprises are nowadays regarded as ‘social agents’ that not only bring profit to shareholders, but also affect stakeholders. Therefore, every enterprise needs to embrace corporate social responsibility. A corporate manager should consider ethical issues and effective ethical programs for making long-run development of his/her company. Looking at concrete ethical issues, this course aims to develop a practical understanding of business ethics in different countries. This course also aims to develop in the participants the necessary skills required in researches, which include expressing their opinions persuasively, making clear presentations, and designing proper solutions for concrete problematic situations. To this end, participants are expected to contribute to the class by expressing their own opinions in discussions, and by making presentations on concrete cases.
International Political Economy of Agriculture (Instructor: Shuji Hisano)
- This course is designed for any and all students with an interest in globally pressing issues of agriculture and food governance, as well as transnational corporations in developing countries, from a wide range of social scientific perspectives, including international political economy, international relations, international law, agricultural economics, rural sociology, development studies, civil society studies, and so on. The primary language of instruction and discussions will be English.
Other courses include:
- Sustainable Development Studies (Instructors: Kazuhiro Ueta, Toru Morotomi)
- Japanese Economic History (Instructor: Junko Watanabe)
- East Asian Economic History (Instructor: Kazuo Hori)
- Contemporary Chinese Economy (Instructor: Deqiang Liu)
- Social Policy Studies (Instructor: Norio Hisamoto)
- Readings on Human Resources (Instructor: Hisako Inaba)
- Corporate Strategy and Global Business (Instructor: Asli M Colpan)
- Readings on Environmental Economics (Instructor: Emiko Inoue)
- Environment Management (Instructor: Emiko Inoue)
- Field Research in East Asian Region A: China / B: South Korea / C: ASEAN (Instructors: Go Yano, Deqiang Liu / Natsuka Tokumaru, Hiromi Shioji / Shuji Hisano, John Lambino)
For more detail information, please contact the following persons in charge:
- eac [at] econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp
- Prof. dr. Shuji HISANO ‐‐‐ hisano [at] econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp
- Associate Prof. dr. Go YANO ‐‐‐ yano [at] econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp
- Lecturer dr. Natsuka TOKUMARU — tokumaru [at] econ.kyoto-u.ac.jp