Master’s Program in International Cooperation Studies
Today, numerous global challenges and threats exist, and they cannot be resolved by any single nation alone. These challenges include military conflicts, global warming, worldwide droughts, and pandemics. The purpose of this Master program is to provide students with the knowledge, sensibility, and expertise to actively contribute to overcoming such global issues.
Curriculum
The Graduate Program of International Cooperation Studies (GPIC) is structured around three main pillars: 1) peacebuilding and international relations, 2) international educational development, and 3) the promotion of sustainable societies. Students are free to select and complete courses from across the Graduate School of Global Studies, according to their own interests, thereby enhancing their specialization.
Many courses are offered in English, designed to serve as practical training for developing international careers.
Moreover, many faculty members possess practical experience with international organizations, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and research institutes, providing students with the fundamental way of thinking, knowledge, and skills essential for working in organizations dedicated to addressing global challenges.
Granted Degree
- Master’s Program: MASTER OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION STUDIES
Program Features
Educational and Research Pillars
1) Peacebuilding and International Relations
This area focuses on international activities and issues related to conflict resolution, peace mediation, and post-conflict peacebuilding. The goal is to provide students with the fundamental knowledge, learning, and sensibility to engage in these fields. Peacebuilding encompasses diverse civilian-led efforts, such as promoting post-conflict nation building, economic reconstruction, systems of governance, and security sector reforms.
2) International Educational Development
Students learn about educational development aimed at sustainable societies in Global South and beyond, as well as international cooperation for sustainable development in developing countries. Grounded primarily in comparative and international education, the curriculum deepens students’ understanding of the challenges encountered in educational development efforts and approaches to overcoming them.
3) Promotion of Sustainable Societies
This pillar addresses environmental and developmental issues, as well as the social marginalization of communities and regions. Building on the results of previous international initiatives, it explores new concepts of sustainability transcending the conventional environment–development dichotomy, and examines the dynamics of the environment and human activities through resource management, utilization, and distribution. Regarding social marginalization, qualitative research methods are used to study perspectives excluded from mainstream society, encouraging students to reconsider national and global structures.
At the same time, just as the actual challenges we face are interrelated in complex world, so too are these three thematic areas of the program intertwined and integrated, emphasizing comprehensive study rather than limited selections of courses. Students can take numerous courses in their areas of interest and receive faculty guidance when writing their master’s thesis or research papers, using any academic framework appropriate to their topic. This multidisciplinary approach fosters the broad knowledge, learning, and sensibility necessary for contributing to addressing global challenges.
Evening and Night Classes
To accommodate working professionals, many classes are offered on weekday evenings (5th and 6th periods) and Saturdays, including intensive courses. The program also offers a long-term study system, allowing enrollment for up to three years with tuition fees covering two years.
Prospective Career Paths
Graduates are expected to contribute globally by working in a wide range of sectors worldwide, including NGOs/NPOs, the JICA, consulting firms supporting Japan’s Official Development Assistance, media organizations such as newspapers and TV broadcasters, corporate social responsibility departments in private companies, diplomatic and security fields, and various international organizations.
Offered Courses
Approximately half of the courses are conducted in English.
- Core Courses (Examples/There are other courses.)
- International Organizations Theory and Seminar
- Peacebuilding Seminar
- International Politics and Cooperation
- Research on International Educational Development
- Education for Sustainable Development
- Marginalized Peoples and Communities
- Environment and Development
- Sustainable Development
- Overseas Training (Examples)
- Sustainability Study Tour
- Learning Africa Tour
- Learning South Korea Tour
- Specialized Courses (Examples)
- Diplomacy and International Cooperation
- Non-formal and Lifelong Education
- Environmental History and Policy in Japan
- Gender and Politics
- Special Topics in International Communication
- Public Relations
- Project Management
- International Development Finance Institutions
- International Development Finance and Private Enterprises
- International Development Cooperation: Population, Global Health, and Gender Perspectives
- UN Studies
Educational Policies
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The program aims to nurture global talents who have both broad knowledge and practical skills in the fields of peace cooperation and peacebuilding requiring international solidarity, development of sustainable economy and society, and development of education to cope with various global issues that go beyond the framework of countries, and sets standards for the skills and knowledge students should acquire by the end of the program as described below. Those who fulfill the completion requirements and pass their thesis or research defense shall be deemed to have acquired these qualities and will be awarded a diploma
- Acquire skills and practical abilities for engaging in international cooperation, having organized and understood the philosophy, concept, and theories of international cooperation required by the global society, and moreover, having learned the methodologies of international cooperation as well as roles and functions of international organizations, government agencies, NGOs, and private sectors, which drive forward international cooperation
- Acquire profound knowledge of the initiatives taken by the international society and of the current status in the fields of peace cooperation and peacebuilding; sustainable development/society; and educational development; and also acquire the ability to identify practical and feasible policies and measures for solving various issues.
- Consider international cooperation by combining a wide range of academic fields related to the promotion of international cooperation such as international relations, international sociology, international economics, statistics, educational development, cultural sociology, and area studies, and acquire the ability to develop critical and logical argument as well as practical communication skills.
- The ability to write academic papers and research themes that have proper structure, accurate analysis, clarity, and are logical and convincing, based on past research.
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The program has two disciplinary specialty pillars to achieve the diploma policy: peace cooperation and peacebuilding research; and sustainable development/society and educational development research. It distributes the courses in the two disciplinary specialties in a balanced manner over the core subject group consisting of basic courses (Group A) and overseas internship courses (Group B), and five small course groups and two large course groups of the specialized course group consisting of applied courses (Group C), applied practical courses (Group D), and collaboration courses (Group E). The curriculum offers opportunities to the students, depending on the disciplinary specialty, to acquire skills and practical abilities for engaging in international cooperation at the frontline overseas in the overseas internship courses (Group B), building on the broad knowledge they acquired in the basic courses (Group A) of the core subject group, and further deepen analysis, logical composition, and knowledge of the respective disciplinary specialties in the applied courses (Group C), applied practical courses (Group D), and collaboration courses (Group E) of the specialized course group and boost expertise and practical abilities.
- The basic courses (Group A) offer courses that form the base of the two disciplinary specialties, in which students learn the roles and functions of the United Nations, which is engaged in extensive fields, and related specialized international organizations. The group also includes basic courses regarding international cooperation and courses that become the basis of research such as survey methodologies, skills improvement, international civil servant system, and communication theories, in which the students acquire basic knowledge of international cooperation and nurture the foundation of thinking ability, ability to develop logical argument, and practical communication skills.
- Overseas internship courses (Group B) allow students to gain valuable real experience for achieving an international career after gaining degrees, and improve practical knowledge and skills, and practical abilities.
- The applied courses (Group C) and applied practical courses (Group D) offer courses for students to widen their knowledge in each field; improve their cogitation and analyzing skills and ability to develop arguments; and deepen their specialization. In the fields of peace cooperation and peacebuilding, the students deepen their understanding of not only peace cooperation by the UN but also collaboration with local organizations, sub-local organizations, specialized international organizations, international NGOs, and private sector; the impact of diplomacy by leading nations; and contribution to human security. In sustainable development, the groups primarily offer more practical courses such as the roles of development-related international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and international development financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank; development assistance by governments; direct investment by private sectors including private enterprises; and development theories reflecting environment and genders. In social and educational development, the groups offer opportunities to learn not only the relationship between development, population, and movement of people; the roles of local society; the balance between environment and development; and improvement of fairness and quality of education in public education but also factors that contribute to the development of non-formal education outside school.
- The collaboration courses (Group E) include diverse subjects from international politics and theory of internal political economy to study of unique characteristics of regions and regional developmental approach in international developmental cooperation as well as marine law and gender theory, which play the role of strengthening wide-ranging knowledge in the academic fields related to the two disciplinary specialties. It is designed to allow students to take courses in other graduate schools and majors, and offers an opportunity for students to further improve the knowledge in the disciplinary specialties, cogitation and analyzing skills, and the ability to develop arguments.
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- A student who clearly understands the political, economic, and social trends in the international society; has the ability to analyze the response of international society against global issues from the level of international systems, nation, and local communities; and possesses a strong will to contribute to international cooperation.
- A student with high academic inquisitiveness, and at the same time, possessing analyzing skills, logical cogitation, and expressive power to realize policies as well as excellent international-level English language and communication skills.
- A student with a strong recommendation from a person, such as a past thesis advisor or a superior at work, who has guided the student in obtaining an important qualification with respect to the student’s clear intention for a career in international cooperation field and the ability to realize it.
Faculty Members
Our faculty features experts with extensive practical experience in international institutions and cooperation, teaching many core and specialized courses related to international organizations, international cooperation, peacebuilding, and international politics.
Naoki UMEMIYA Professor
| Research Areas | “International Cooperation in Education International Educational Development International Higher Education Comparative and International Education” |
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Mikiko SUGIURA Professor
| Research Areas | “Off-steam use Development and Environment” |
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Daisaku HIGASHI Professor
| Research Areas | “Mediation International Relations Peacebuilding” |
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Yuka MIZUTANI Professor
| Research Areas | “Indigenous peoples Ethnicity Cultural Anthropology” |
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Shino WATANABE Professor
| Research Areas | “International Development Finance International Relations in East Asia Chinese Foreign Policy” |
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Wonkyung RHEE Associate Professor
| Research Areas | “International Relations International Political Economy Internet governance Korea-Japan relation soft power policy” |
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Wakiko OHIRA Assistant Professor
| Research Areas | “Politics in Africa Traditional authorities Semi-authoritarian states” |
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