Waseda University

This course begins from the recent developments in city making that have emerged with the aim of creating more convivial places through pluralistic, democratic practices. The course examines the historical, cultural, economic, political, environmental, and other influences that determine how places form and how planners sought to control their development.  This course explores the dynamic and contingent nature of place making practices and theories from four perspectives:

a) The specific activities associated with planning, place-making, and urban governance,

b) the different, often competing perspectives of people who plan, control, manage, and make our cities; 

c) the relationship between state agencies, place-makers & civil society; and,

d) plans, policies and projects as historical artifacts.

Graph theory provides a basis for computational sciences, financial engineering, chemistry, and epidemiology, among many others. This course covers graph theory including graphs, paths, cycles, trees, connectivity, Eulerian and Hamiltonian graphs, and planar graphs, as well as some important algorithms. 

From brand campaigns to social issues, digital marketing has played a vital role in generating brand and message proliferation around the world. This course looks at marketing strategies used to build and grow brands and messages, with a heavy emphasis on how to drive brand awareness, preference and loyalty through digital marketing. A large part of this course is case-based. 

Anthropological studies on China emerged from various directions in the last century. This course is designed to gain a deeper understanding of China through various anthropological lenses, including studies on the Han nationality, which focuses on ancient poetry; village community and economic life; familism; clan; folk religion; private life, and also studies on ethnic minorities conducted by multiple anthropological methods. The works of these anthropologists also mirror the evolution of the anthropology discipline and its changing paradigms during the 20th century. Through reading and discussing these anthropological works with different focuses, students are expected to form a comprehensive understanding of both China and anthropology. 

Taking Political Sociology as the main approach, this course explores the relevance of international organizations (intergovernmental and non-governmental), and how political and social forces interact and shape each other. The course provides a general introduction to international institutions, as well as their origins, priorities, structure, and means of action. The course places a special emphasis on the role of international organizations after World War II; globalization, and its impact on transnational governance and management of global threats or social movements. The course reflects on how ideologies and beliefs relate to the formation, management and responsibility of international organizations towards social problems, as well as underlying power structures.

This course examines Japanese phonetics and phonology, dealing with segmental and prosodic aspects of the language. Lectures focus on the typical characteristics of the sound systems of Japanese in relation to phonetic and phonological theories. The course focuses mainly on theory, but practical pronunciation training is included to aid understanding of the theories. 

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the modern study of computer algorithms. The course uses Python language as a tool to learn various algorithms in depth. Knowledge in mathematics, especially algebra, is expected and having basic knowledge and experience in Python helps to better understand class content.

This advanced Japanese course is designed to improve communication skills needed on a business setting. A theme concerning Japanese culture and society is chosen in context of "business" and students are split into groups to engage in activities, discussion, and group work concerning the selected topic. The course aims to widen student perspectives and deepen their knowledge regarding various issues related to Japan and Japanese society, while acquiring skills needed in a Japanese business setting. The program offers various theme courses and students may take multiple sections. 

In developed countries, social security expenditures, such as public pension, health care and long-term care, account for a substantial part of the total expenditures of the public sector. The design of the social security system is an important policy issue in Japan, which is facing a rapidly aging population with a declining birthrate, as well as skyrocketing public debt. This course provides an overview of Japan's social security system and the economic theories behind the system.

This course introduces students to the basic framework and key concepts to understand the behavior of voters and politicians in elections. It also explores the foundations of political parties and electoral competition. The course acquaints one with the knowledge and terminology of political science, but also gives one tools to evaluate information and think critically about how politics works.