Professor Takemasa Ando

• Research area/content
  • Political sociology. I conduct field research on social movements related to food, agriculture, and nuclear issues in Northeast Asia, particularly in Japan, and am researching the impact these movements have on civil society and democracy.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Political sociology. Learn theoretical frameworks for understanding the relationship between politics and society by reading political and sociological literature on social movements, democracy, food and agriculture.
• Recent research guidance
  • The course will provide guidance on theoretical frameworks and empirical research methods, taking into account the students' areas of expertise.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Angelo Ishi

• Research area/content
  • Immigration studies, media sociology of ethnicity. Media sociological research on international migration in the global era, particularly foreigners in Japan, Japanese Brazilians, and the Brazilian diaspora abroad.
• Content of subjects
  • Participants will read and discuss literature on immigration studies, multicultural coexistence theory, and media and cultural production associated with transnational human movement.
• Recent research guidance
  • He supervised research on the political, social, and cultural activities of Japanese Brazilians who immigrated to Japan.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yukie Ohya

• Research area/content
  • Sociology of art and visual culture, semiotics, and consumer society. Quantitative and qualitative research on the relationship between authentic and popular culture activities and social class and identity.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Sociology of Gender and Culture.
  • Seminar: Culture and Communication.
  • In this class, students will deepen their understanding of semiotics in order to understand not only cultural phenomena but also social systems and consumer behavior, while also examining the structure of society, power relations, and identity politics.
• Recent research guidance
  • Japanese people's awareness of time and their behavior. Conducted research on "nuclear promotion education" in primary and secondary schools in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Supervised qualitative and quantitative research on the formation of "public image of nurses."
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Nobuyuki Okumura

• Research area/content
  • Journalism, media and politics, digital journalism. Examining bias and problems in news reporting through content analysis, etc. Envisioning the future of news amid diversifying platforms.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Reporting Case Studies (Domestic) and (International) explore practical solutions to journalism problems through the examination of reporting of specific incidents and events.
  • Exercise: Issues in the network society will be discussed not only in the news but also in areas such as privacy and copyright in the cyber society.
• Recent research guidance
  • I would like to cover a wide range of topics, including ensuring the safety of journalists reporting from conflict zones, issues of religion and freedom of the press in the wake of the frequent terrorist attacks in Europe and elsewhere, the balance between privacy and state secrecy on the Internet and the right to know, and the structure that gives rise to so-called "fake news."
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Hideaki Kikuchi

• Research area/content
  • Sociology of welfare and social security. Conducts theoretical and empirical research on various phenomena related to welfare, particularly poverty, low income, social exclusion, and declining birthrates and an aging population.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Modern society and welfare.
  • Seminar: Macrosociology of welfare, microsociology of welfare.
  • In each class, we aim to have students carefully read important literature related to welfare and social security, while taking into account their concerns and the issues at stake, and to deepen their discussion.
• Recent research guidance
  • Literature reading was conducted to understand the latest research trends in welfare sociology.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Ichiro Kogawa

• Research area/content
  • Nonprofit organization theory. The role of nonprofit organizations in modern Japanese society. Consider the appropriate form of the new public sector from the perspective of evaluation, especially social impact evaluation.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Nonprofit organizations and society.
  • Exercise: Nonprofit organizations and information.
  • Looking at the process of the development of a new concept of the public in postwar Japan, this paper examines the reasons why nonprofit organizations are not socially accepted, focusing on two key points: media and evaluation.
• Recent research guidance
  • By analyzing the contents of information magazines about NPO management published in Japan and examining the changes in the way NPO evaluation is conducted as covered in the journal of the Japan Evaluation Association, we examined what is being primarily discussed in the evaluation of non-profit organizations.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Masahiko Shoji

• Research area/content
  • Information sociology and information and communications policy (the impact of informatization on government, business, civil society, culture, etc., digital transformation in government and local communities, international comparisons, etc.). Research on the use of data and AI, and ELS (ethical, legal, and social issues).
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Information Society and Policy: Based on literature and other sources, we will understand the current situation and policies regarding changes in lifestyle and culture accompanying the information society, the balance between data utilization and the protection of personal information and intellectual property rights, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the restructuring of social systems, and consider future directions.
  • Exercise: Information Society and Governance: We will consider "governance" as the way in which various actors in the information society proactively coordinate with each other to run society, and will consider and examine its form based on literature and other sources.
• Recent research guidance
  • Conducts qualitative and quantitative research on user-generated content on social media and the growth and decline of communities. Also organizes domestic and international facts, stakeholder trends, academic debates, policy trends, etc., regarding current issues in the information society, and provides critical and future-oriented reviews and proposals.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yuki Senda

• Research area/content
  • Contemporary social theory, gender, family, social theory, etc. We are learning and deepening our understanding of methodologies for analyzing various issues in contemporary society from a theoretical, empirical, and historical perspective.
• Content of subjects
  • Lectures: Gender and Sociological Theory, Sociology of the Family.
  • Exercises: Modern Sociology.
  • In class, students will read about gender, sexuality, family, and sociological theory in preparation for writing their dissertation.
• Recent research guidance
  • These include discourse analysis on the desire to have a second child and the declining birthrate, as well as an analysis of the process of the creation of the genre "girls' photography."
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yuuko Tarumi

• Research area/content
  • Sociology of education and comparative education. Conducts empirical research using international comparisons on such topics as differences in children's academic ability due to family background and family structure, and differences in children's educational ability due to parents' cultural and social capital.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Sociology of Education.
  • Seminar: Comparative sociology of educational inequality.
  • This course will involve reading domestic and international literature, learning how the social device known as the school has been theoretically understood and discussed in the field of sociology, and examining from multiple perspectives the mechanisms by which educational disparities are generated.
• Recent research guidance
  • We teach the entire process of social research, in which students set their own issues and analytical frameworks based on previous domestic and international research on educational disparities, and then use quantitative research methods to verify hypotheses.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Natsuho Tomabechi

• Research area/content
  • Quantitative sociology, social stratification, family sociology, and sociology of education. Using data from quantitative social surveys, I am conducting empirical research into the impact of sibling composition on individuals' life events.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Quantitative Sociology. Learn about the process of quantitative social research and acquire the knowledge and skills to conduct the research.
  • Seminar: Family and modern society. Students will read literature on issues and problems related to the family in modern society, and will use quantitative analysis to verify hypotheses.
• Recent research guidance
  • Starting from an interest in family and education, students will review previous research and derive a problem. They will then verify the problem using quantitative methods and compile the results into a paper.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Akiko Naito

• Research area/content
  • Cultural anthropology with a focus on Oceania and Japan, including aspects of contemporary culture, tourism, indigenous peoples and decolonization, environmental issues, intellectual and cultural property rights, and gender.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Multicultural coexistence and anthropology.
  • Exercises: Modern Cultural Anthropology.
  • The themes of the classes are varied, but they will consider and examine from multiple perspectives issues such as social inclusion/exclusion, the nature of multicultural coexistence, and various aspects of identity.
• Recent research guidance
  • Students will read texts related to their area of interest within various aspects of contemporary culture, such as the nature of rituals during the Shikoku pilgrimage and the religious practices of Muslims living in Japanese society, and will be taught the theories and methods of cultural anthropology.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yuko Nakanishi

• Research area/content
  • Sociology of gender, sociology of education, social capital, and research on new Japanese immigrants to the United States.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Everyday life and gender.
  • Seminar: Gender and Contemporary Society.
  • In class, we consider modern society using domestic and international literature on topics such as gender, feminism, education, and social capital.
• Recent research guidance
  • School culture and masculinity, gender structure in modern society, social capital and educational advancement disparities.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yuusuke Hayashi

• Research area/content
  • Sociological research on social inequality and life course based on quantitative analysis of large-scale social surveys and research on sexual behavior among youth. She is also interested in social survey methodology and statistical analysis methods.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Quantitative behavioral science. Explanations and practical training on event history analysis and panel data analysis.
  • Seminar: Models and Social Analysis. Students will report and discuss the selection of analytical models that align with their research interests and their implementation.
• Recent research guidance
  • This course provides guidance on the sequence of econometric sociological research, in which a problem to be solved is derived based on previous research, modeled, and hypothesis verification is conducted from the analysis of large-scale survey data (nationwide panel surveys, cross-sectional surveys).
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Yasuhiro Hitomi

• Research area/content
  • International sociology, migration and refugee studies, globalization.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: International Sociology.
  • Seminar: Application of international sociology.
  • Students will read and discuss literature related to social issues that arise across borders, including those involving people, goods, money, culture, and information, and will acquire the theories and methods of international sociology necessary for writing their dissertations.
• Recent research guidance
  • The participants read academic papers and specialist books on topics such as international migration, ethnicity, social integration, and transnationalism, and provided instruction in the theories and methods of international sociology.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Takashi Matsui

• Research area/content
  • History of social movements (social movement research, historical sociology). Through document and material research and interviews, I am researching social movements in postwar Japan, particularly the anti-war movement and "civil movements" since the 1960s.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Historical sociology of postwar Japan.
  • Exercise: Social movement history research.
  • While examining the historical changes in politics and society in postwar Japan, the book explores the activities of past social movements, primarily based on documentary sources.
• Recent research guidance
  • While taking into consideration the concerns of students, students will develop their historical and sociological imagination through reading a wide range of related literature.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Katsuya Minamida

• Research area/content
  • Sociology of music. Social phenomena related to popular music in general. Sociological theory, structuralism, media industry theory, content culture theory, quantitative research, qualitative research, etc.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Sociology of Music Media.
  • Seminar: Sociology of music.
  • In this course, we will read the literature on sociology of music carefully, consider and discuss how sociological theories have been introduced into the field of music studies, and give presentations and reviews on students' research topics.
• Recent research guidance
  • We read several textbooks that form the basis of music sociology in their original form, and examine and discuss each of the case studies written about while actually listening to the audio recordings, providing guidance on how to understand culture from multiple perspectives.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Keisuke Yatabe

• Research area/content
  • Sociological theory (especially phenomenological sociology centered around A. Schutz and its surroundings) and museum exhibitions (especially narratives related to memory and history).
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Contemporary Society and Social Theory.
  • Seminar: The everyday world and social theory.
  • In this class, we will read and discuss texts on sociology and related fields, as well as hold discussions based on each student's research report.
• Recent research guidance
  • The texts were examined based on sociological research into memory.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile

Professor Tetsuya Yamazaki

• Research area/content
  • Lifeworld theory, social consciousness theory, gender theory, youth theory, social movement theory, etc. I am researching themes such as gender equality and the Internet generation from the perspectives of lifeworld theory, gender theory, and masculinity studies.
• Content of subjects
  • Lecture: Lifeworld and gender.
  • Seminar: Youth culture and generations.
• Recent research guidance
  • The course is conducted by carefully reading and discussing translations of literature that are considered important for the study of sociology, gender theory, etc., while also comparing them with the original English texts. Students will also report and discuss their research themes.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's term, Doctoral term
• Faculty Profile

Professor Youngmi  Lim

• Research area/content
  • Racial and ethnic relations. Qualitative research methods. My research focuses on race and ethnicity as social constructs, intergroup relations among ethnic minority groups and immigrant communities, and their transformation and causes.
• Content of subjects
  • In "Modern Society and Ethnography," we will read classic works of modern ethnography, focusing in particular on the findings and debates surrounding autoethnography, which has seen a growing body of research in recent years but remains controversial.
  • In "Minorities and Social Movements," students will gain a foundation in social movement theory to understand how minority groups formulate objections to majority groups and develop their movements. They will also read previous research and conduct secondary analysis of various materials based on each student's individual concerns.
• Recent research guidance
  • An ethnographic approach to the education and contestation strategies of ethnic communities is central to instruction.
• Research Supervisor
  • Master's degree
• Faculty Profile