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The School of Japanese Studies

Founded in 1964, the School of Japanese Studies is Dalian University of Foreign Language’s oldest department of language instruction and is the largest centre for Japanese-language education outside of Japan. Its well-regarded programs are designated as key disciplinary majors at national and provincial level.  Provincial education authorities have conferred the status of model undergraduate program on the Japanese curriculum, and it is part of the provincial pilot education reform scheme. 

Over the past fifty years, the School of Japanese Studies has made great achievements in language instruction and academic research. There has also been significant progress in areas such as student enrollment, faculty composition and education methodology. It has an enrollment of 2400 undergraduates and 270 graduate students. The following programs are offered: Japanese Language and Literature, Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (Japanese), and Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI). The school benefits from the professional expertise of a full-time local faculty of eighty-six members and fourteen native Japanese experts, of whom fifteen are professors and thirty-six associate professors. Of the eighty-six faculty members, twenty-four are PhD degree holders, and fifty-nine MAs. Among them are candidates for a national talent identification project and recipients of special stipends and sponsorships from the State Council and provincial government. Faculty members are committed to excellence in instruction and research.

The success of the Japanese translation course has been acknowledged by its designation as a provincial and national course of choice in China, while Basic Japanese, Audio-Visual Japanese and Advanced Japanese hold this designation at provincial level. Four series of textbooks are prescribed as standard textbooks for the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” and the Japanese Translation team of faculty members was awarded the honor of ‘Team of the Province’. For the past three years, five research projects have been sponsored by the State Council, and seven by the Ministry of Education. Thirty independent projects and three joint projects with Japanese institutions were sponsored by the provincial government, of which twenty won awards from the provincial government for research in the field of natural sciences.

The School of Japanese Studies boasts a faculty dedicated to the excellence in student instruction and the development of multi-disciplinary knowledge and diversified skills based on an internationalized orientation. An interactive teaching mode and improvements in pedagogy have optimized the quality of the education students receive, broadening their knowledge and skills as well as enhancing their job prospects after graduation. Students from the School of Japanese Studies have excelled in various contests such as the China Cup Speech Contest, the National Multi-Language Interpreting Contest, the National Contest of Knowledge of Japanese, and the Hiroshima Japanese Composition Contest, especially remarkable being their achievements in the Cannon Cup Speech Contest (Dalian), where they achieved first place in twenty-two out of the twenty-five sessions. Graduates are therefore highly regarded for their competence.

The School of Japanese Studies also attaches great importance to international exchanges. It has partnered with forty-nine tertiary institutions in Japan such as Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Ochanomizu University, and Waseda University. Through these partnerships, students have the option of spending the final one or two years of their undergraduate programs at Japanese universities. Through similarly flexible graduate programs, candidates may, for example, complete the last year of their undergraduate education in Japan and then stay on for an additional two years to complete their master’s degrees.

Corporations or foundations such as the Heiwa Nakajima Foundation and the Mitsubishi Corporation also offer scholarships to top-performing students.

The vast majority of graduates of the School of Japanese Studies secure employment and are sought after by international companies as well as in many sectors, including education and diplomacy.

Website for School of Japanese Studies: 
http://jp.dlufl.edu.cn