Japan

An exploratory culture course, Japanese Culture D is offered for foreign students to learn about and share insights into various aspects of the living culture of Japan. The course comprises of three basic approaches: 1) The discussion of certain cultural aspects of the country; 2) Reading literature, and 3) Fieldwork at places of cultural significance. Those who took Japanese Culture C in the fall semester should take Japanese Culture D in the spring semester since they make a pair. Culture B and D courses overlap in part due to the nature of certain special events taking place during the semester.

The course aims to provide a new perspective of the culture of Japan by examining the interconnection of various elements including the history and culture of the Tohoku Region; rebuilding effort from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and certain ways people have expressed themselves on different occasions.

The class comprises of lectures and discussions accompanied with fieldwork opportunities. Twelve years after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, disaster prevention and mitigation has come to hold an important place in the culture of this nation. Japanese Culture class has been contributing to this cause since soon after the 2011 event and will continue to do so during this semester as well, albeit in a small way.

<Level IV>
Target Students: Those who have completed and mastered elementary level studies.
Course Goals: To develop understanding and command of the 100 important intermediate sentence patterns for further improvement of the four skills of reading, listening, speaking, and writing. To master the 4,000 basic words and 800 basic Chinese characters.
<General 1-5>
Goal: To develop balanced, intermediate-level proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Contents: Learning the 100 most important intermediate sentence patterns and vocabulary and improving reading comprehension with an intermediate level textbook. Developing command of intermediate Japanese through short sentence composition exercises. Increasing vocabulary by learning both the words introduced in the textbook as well as additional related words. Improving the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing by understanding the textbook and exchanging opinions on it.

This course is designed for total beginners of Japanese or those who have only studied Japanese for a very short time. Utilizing a topic-based approach, the course instructs on how to interact in Japanese in discussing everyday topics such as talking about oneself, family, favorite things, everyday life, and recent events. Utilizing a situational and functional approach, the course instructs on how to use Japanese in areas of immediate need such as in shopping, ordering food, asking about locations of objects, etc.  Students will also learn 64 basic Japanese verbs and adjectives which are needed for basic communication in the Japanese language.  

The course presents fundamental knowledge (grammar, vocabulary, writing system, and phonetics) and basic skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which are needed for basic communication in the Japanese language.

This course studies the fundamentals and recent progress in the research fields of molecular biology, cell biology, and physiology with plants, animals, and microbes as well as chemistry of biologically active natural products. More than ten Professors and Associate Professors will give lectures weekly to introduce their specific research fields.

The goal of this class is to obtain the background knowledge concerning life science for agricultural and industrial applications as well as the basic principles of biochemistry and biotechnology.

This course emphasizes hands-on laboratory experience and teaches students research background, relevant theories, and basic laboratory techniques relevant to their field of study. Students formulate a research plan, implement it by conducting experiment-based research, and convey the results in scholarly presentations. Students submit a written research report at the end of the course.

Many novices in the historical study of the Cold War tend to draw a simplistic picture about it. For example, the Cold War was an international political process of US-Soviet strategic and ideological confrontations which never reached a third world war. But this widely shared image is not at all appropriate to properly depict the highly complex historical reality of the Cold War. In order to comprehend the complexity, this course analyzes the multiple actors and issues which determined the process of Cold War world politics. This includes not only the global superpowers, but the roles played by their allies, Third World countries, and even transnational actors such as NGOs. The course also sheds more analytical light upon interplay of manifold issue areas such as strategy, economic interdependence, societal changes and so forth.  In short, this course explores Cold War history from a global perspective.

This is an introductory course for media and communication studies. It provides an overview of major theories concerning media and communication in order to analyze our everyday communications. Theories of interpersonal communication, persuasion, and mediated communication will be included.

This course seeks to answer the questions, How was the manorial system formed, and how did it mitigate incentive problems then? How were property rights of peasants formed and protected in early modern times? Finally, how was Japan industrialized after the Meiji Restoration? In the real world, the first best resource allocation, which is presumed to be realized under perfect competition, cannot be achieved anyway. Given the structure of informational asymmetry and other technological conditions, a better second best has been sought and has evolved over times. The aim of the course is to understand the economic development of Japan from the medieval times, through the Tokugawa period and the Meiji Restoration, to the industrial revolution in the late 19th century.

This is an intermediate elementary Japanese language course. It is a continuation of Japanese I at ICU. It provides a firm foundation of communicative skills in both spoken and written Japanese. Upon completion of this course students should have a mastery of additional basic grammatical structures, vocabulary, and 102 additional kanji with new readings.

This advanced intermediate Japanese language course is a continuation of Japanese V and is the equivalent level of UC fifth year language study. It prepares students for advanced-level courses by establishing a solid base for students to fully utilize Japanese in academic as well as social contexts. Students learn skills necessary for academic life, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. New kanji are introduced, as well as new vocabulary expressions and grammatical structures.