Message from the Dean

Welcome to the website of Sophia University’s Faculty of Foreign Studies!

Thank you for visiting our website.

Many of our colleagues abroad have heard the name of Sophia University in Tokyo. It was the first Catholic university in Japan, established in the center of the metropolis in 1913 by Jesuit missionaries. Now, Sophia University has a student body of approximately 12,000 students.

As the world became smaller and contacts become closer, we hope that we will come together as human beings and understand one another better. However, this is not always the case and contrary to our expectations we still face many problems, such as international conflicts, humanitarian crises, immigration, forced displacement and refugee issues. The only solution for us to coexist is to actively confront our troubles with courage, together as one human family, while we maintain and celebrate our diversity.

Since its foundation in 1958, the Faculty of Foreign Studies has upheld its mission to educate excellent students who can utilize their language skills and intercultural competence to make the world a better place for all, based on our guiding principle, “For Others, With Others.” Our Faculty comprises 2,200 students divided into 6 departments.

The Faculty is constantly preparing our students to be able to cooperate with other people from different parts of the world, regardless of nationality, gender or age. For this purpose, students must first truly master the languages they are majoring in — whether it is English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, or Portuguese.

Using their knowledge of these languages, students then study in a certain Area, or in a Cross-Area discipline they choose for their main course of study. This is why our Faculty has created a curriculum to strengthen Area and Cross-Area Studies, which we have broken down into nine different categories: North American Studies, European Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian & Eurasian Studies, Asian Studies, Middle Eastern & African Studies, Language Studies, International Politics, Civil Society & International Cooperation.

In addition to our regularly scheduled educational activities and innovative programs, the Faculty of Foreign Studies organizes various international symposia and seminars, which are based on the research networks of our faculty and also students’ activities, such as presentations of graduation theses and theatre festivals in foreign languages.

International exchange has been one of the biggest strengths of our faculty, cultivating a strong and wide-ranging network with more than 330 partner universities all over the world. We have also promoted courses designed as COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) programs, which are conducted either jointly with other courses run abroad or by inviting guest speakers from our partner institutions.

The German department has a special exchange program with students from German speaking countries who learn Japanese. The incoming students take at Sophia courses of Japanese language and courses of the German department, in which the Japanese students and exchange students discuss and collaborate in German and Japanese. Other departments also welcome exchange students to join our courses.

Students from abroad are also welcome to study at our faculty as degree students. The curriculum is designed to develop competence in three languages: Japanese, English and the major language of the department. Students who major English learn a third language as well. So, if your mother tongue (first language) is not Japanese, you can raise your Japanese to a proficient level while acquiring high competence in two other languages and use these languages to research topics of your interest at the Faculty and also in your career after graduation.

I invite you to explore the website to get to know our faculty, objectives, educational activities and research projects. We have also made a brief video to introduce our faculty based on the real voices of our students. Please join us in the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia!

KIMURA Goro Christoph
Dean and Professor
Faculty of Foreign Studies
Sophia University