Keio University

To communicate well with others, especially in cross-cultural settings, it is crucial to have a good vocabulary and grammatical knowledge of the language used, but this is not enough. We still misunderstand each other unless we correctly understand what they mean through their speech, which is sometimes not so easy. This course explores Japanese everyday interaction from various socio-cultural aspects that may affect speakers' ways of interacting with others. By analyzing it in detail, comparing it to practices in other languages, and sharing expressions and opinions with classmates, insight into how people select their words and expressions and thereby perform social actions is provided. The course examines socio-cultural phenomena of Japanese communication from a wider perspective, while observing and analyzing language use and its possible impacts on others. 

This advanced course introduces Japanese politics and demonstrates how the study of Japanese politics can contribute to an understanding of broader issues in comparative government and comparative politics. It examines how Japanese politics has developed and what has been key, referring to the relevant scholarly debates. It covers modern political history since 1945 and the structures and key actors of contemporary politics such as political parties, bureaucracies, and policy making. The course also studies a number of contemporary policy issues in depth, including industrial policy, regulatory policy, foreign and defense policy, and welfare policy. It looks at policy issues at a micro level and links them to broader political contexts of Japanese politics and beyond.

This course focuses on intermediate level grammar and corresponds to the N2 level of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test.

Textbook: ABK "TRY! Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2 - Developing Japanese through Grammar" (Ask Publishing).

This is an introductory course on modern Artificial Intelligence designed for Keio University. It focuses predominantly on theory and fundamental concepts, with implementation of basic techniques in Python. Depending on the level of the students and time constraints, it may also cover more practical engineering topics using modern practices, as well as some of the most influential recent advancements based on a selection of research papers. Additionally, the course also covers some topics in more depth based on the interests of the instructor. One of those topics is Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the era of Deep Learning, as well as advanced methods in representation learning.

This course focuses on Deep Neural Information Processing Systems. As a rapidly developing field, the course centers on most important trends and core ideas, as it is impossible to cover all recent developments in a single course. It follows historical trends in AI with a focus on neural networks, seeing how the current ideas emerged out of decades of research in the field.  Then, the course discusses current neural architectures and algorithms, while introducing modern perspectives. After completing this course, students are expected to have an appreciation and understanding of neural AI systems and anticipate future developments in research and applications of AI (especially Deep Learning). 

This course covers leading theoretical approaches to Japanese animation as viewed from abroad. Is anime a genre? A culture? An industry? How do we actually define anime? And what reasons exist for studying anime in the first place? To answer these questions, the course explores the history of Japanese animation and its global reach by means of arguments put forth by leading scholars in the English language, including notably Rayna Denison, Susan Napier, Thomas Lamarre, and Jonathan Clements. This course looks at the themes they identify in and around anime, such as the shojo, the otaku, the techno-orientalism, as well as investigating to what extent characteristic production methods such as hand-drawn animation define a supposedly unique nature of anime. In the process the course also attempts to identify the transnational aspects that have long formed a part of "Japanese" animation, by asking the question: How Japanese is anime?

This course is aimed at those who have already studied the first half of elementary grammar.  It focuses on oral practice, mainly using the sentence patterns and vocabulary introduced in the course, Essential Japanese 3M.

Textbook: "University Japanese: Beginner's Course, Tomodachi vol.2" compiled by the Japanese Language Education Center for International Students, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.