Japan

This course deals with fundamental issues of constitutional law in postwar Japan. Japan has had two written constitutions so far. One was the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, or the Meiji Constitution, which was promulgated on February 11, 1889, and put into effect on November 29, 1890. The other is the Constitution of Japan, the current Constitution, which was promulgated on November 3, 1946, and became effective on May 3, 1947.  

The goal is to understand the basic constitutional framework in modern Japan and the constitutional practices of postwar Japan, and to attain insight into the challenges current Japanese society is facing. The course covers the following topics: a comparison between the two constitutional frameworks; judicial review and protecting rights, equality, religious freedom and separation of religion and state; voting rights and the electoral process; freedom of expression, family law, and Article 9 and the peace state. 

This course introduces the scientific study of human language. Utilizing Andrew Radford’s An Introduction to English Sentence Structure (2009), the course provides a concise and clear introduction to current work in syntactic theory, drawing on the key concepts of Noam Chomsky's The Minimalist Program. By looking at data mainly from English, it also introduces students to a few linguistic mysteries found not only in present-day English but also in languages like Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Belfast English, Elizabethan English, etc.  

This course provides the opportunity to gain analytical skills which will be a solid foundation for conducting research in the following linguistics-related fields: child language, language acquisition, computational linguistics, machine translation, sign language, pidgin and creole, comparative linguistics, historical linguistics, language and thought, speech therapy, textbook writing, etc.  
 
A companion course (CO310) focuses on more traditional ideas of generative syntax, which forms a basis of the current theory. Students are encouraged to take this course as well. 

This basic Japanese course is designed to improve speaking skills. A different theme concerning Japanese culture and society is chosen for each course and students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The overall goal of the class is for students to widen their perspectives and deepen their knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society. Meeting three times a week, the program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections.  

The Individual Research Training Senior (IRT Senior) Course is an advanced course of the Individual Research Training A (IRT A) course in the Tohoku University Junior Year Program in English (JYPE) in the fall semester. Though short-term international exchange students are not degree candidates at Tohoku University, a similar experience is offered by special arrangement. Students are required to submit: an abstract concerning the results of their IRT Senior project, a paper (A4, 20-30 pages) on their research at the end of the exchange term, and an oral presentation on the results of their IRT Senior project near the end of the term.

This course covers a wide range of topics in modern labor economics with theories and evidence. The course aims to acquaint students with major issues in labor economics and equip them with the economic tools necessary to understand the workings of the labor market. The course emphasizes the interaction between economic theory and empirical work. 

The course begins by introducing the classic economics of human capital and education, with the applications to schooling, job market signaling, job training, and occupational choice. Then it covers the basic theories and empirics on labor supply, labor demand, and labor market equilibrium, linking to topics such as home production, technological change, and minimum wage. After that, two alternative frameworks for understanding wage structure, compensating differential and sorting, will be considered. Last, the course studies several important issues regarding the labor market: job search and unemployment, institutions and policies, and discriminations. Upon successful completion of the course, the students would be able to link theoretical concepts to real-world labor market phenomena and utilize appropriate economics tools to analyze them. The course also prepares students for further study in the field of labor economics.

This course provides a comprehensive understanding of the theories that explain social movements. Despite their seemingly chaotic and elusive nature, scholars have developed various theoretical frameworks that can help understand them. This course focuses on examining classic and contemporary sociological theories in the context of historical social movements. By analyzing a diverse range of social movements and theories, the class is encouraged to develop innovative ideas that can be applied to uncover and address social issues.

This advanced Japanese course choses a different theme concerning Japanese culture and society to discuss each week. Students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The goal of the class is for students to widen their perspectives and deepen their knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society. The program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections.

This course provides an overview of fisheries science. It focuses on the fundamentals of fisheries science as it relates broadly to marine biology, from molecules to ecosystems. The course is divided into two sections: Topics on Marine Ecology and Oceanography, and Topics on Physiology, Biochemistry and Genetics of Aquatic organisms.

This course studies fundamental biology and problems of medicine, medical treatments, and environments.

Society is currently flooded with too much information about health, disease, exercise, nutrition, and how humans should behave to be healthy. This course is designed to develop one’s knowledge of the human body and to help one gain a scientific view of what health really means. The program focuses on the different biomolecules, cells, and systems that work together to keep one alive and healthy.  Instead of using medical jargon, the instructor will illustrate core concepts of physiology and biochemistry in “lay terms” throughout the course. 

Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) allow us to describe many natural phenomena and are therefore essentially important in many scientific areas. This course introduces the standard and most common tools to solve differential equations, particularly Laplace transform and linear algebra method.