Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University
We currently consist of six divisions: Philosophy, Eastern Culture, Western Culture, History, Behavioral Studies, and Contemporary Culture, which are further divided into 34 departments. Undergraduates spend their first two years attending Liberal Arts and General Education Courses (classes which are open to students of all faculties). At the end of the second year, they are required to decide which department they wish to be affiliated to, and then spend a minimum of two years majoring in the field of their choice, on which they are required to write a B.A. thesis.
At the M.A. degree level, students also spend two years or more in study and write a thesis in order to graduate. A minimum of three years is spent before submitting a doctoral dissertation. Departments devoted to studies of eastern cultures have attracted an extremely talented pool of scholars and students from abroad.
The graduate school has always worked closely with the Institute for Research in Humanities, and other components of the university, especially the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies, for both education and research. Also, the graduate school has as an attached institution, The Center for Eurasian Cultural Studies.
With the exception of those led by non-Japanese lecturers, most lectures are conducted in Japanese, although texts are invariably studied in their original languages, and proficiency in foreign languages is a requirement of students in all areas. (Source Accessed Oct 13, 2025)
