Hokkaido University – Modern Japanese Studies Program

At Hokkaido University in Sapporo, the Modern Japanese Studies Program includes an intensive language semester before undergraduate study. This route is for applicants who want to use Japanese as a language of academic study and continue into the university’s four-year bachelor’s degree. It has a different admissions process and time commitment from a short visit to a private language school.

From intensive Japanese to degree classes

Students taking the full route enter in October for a semester of Japanese before starting the degree. Applicants who already have intermediate Japanese can apply for exemption from that semester and enter the degree phase in April. With the intensive component included, the published course length is four and a half years. English and Japanese both appear in the degree curriculum, and participants study alongside Japanese peers in many classes.

The subject matter gives the language work a clear direction. The programme covers the history, culture, society and political economy of modern Japan. Students develop their Japanese while working on these topics across the degree. The Sapporo campus is in Kita ward, north of the central station. Its main gate can be reached on foot from the station’s north exit, and the university publishes a campus map for finding individual buildings.