The Institute of Global Concern (IGC) was established in April 2010 with a mission to conduct research from a global perspective, on a range of issues that threaten the dignity and solidarity of humans to provide opportunities for the conscientization of students and the public through its research output, and to
engage in activities with an aim to realize another, better world. We thus hope to renew and build on the traditions of “the Sophia school” that grapples with the real problems of poverty and violence –“with Others”— in difference to the naively “objectivist” and conformist tendencies of mainstream social science
today.
The IGC was built through the reorganization of the Institute for the Study of Social Justice, which was originally founded in April 1981 and actively engaged in refugee relief efforts.

1. Research on issues related to poverty, violence, and discrimination in the globalizing world.
2. Conscientization activities through symposia, public seminars, study groups, and book fairs.
3. Coordinate a variery of programs collaborating with students, such as study group on the Great East Japan Earthquake and the recovery in Tohoku area.
4. Collaboration with other institutes and groups to strengthen the social dimension of the university.
5. Publication of the electronic journal, Global Concern (annually)