Master in Zeitgenössischer Gesellschaft

We strive to cultivate students to become high-level professionals with investigative and collaborative skills, and the communication skills necessary in modern society.

The Studies in Contemporary Society program is composed of two courses. The information communication specialty deepens theoretical and practical analysis skills regarding various problems related to the information communication that forms the basis of modern society. Also, we support students who are working adults who aim to increase their qualifications by acquiring information education qualifications or IT passport qualifications or becoming information processing experts or fundamental information technology engineers. These career enhancements are becoming increasingly important as IT continues to rapidly progress.

Studies in Contemporary SocietyThe clinical sociology program conducts research about clinical sociology related to contemporary life and death and gender. By conducting research to help eliminate violence towards women and children and to support the victims while this violence is being eradicated, by understanding the culture and customs connected to birth and burial of the dead, and by deepening insight into human existence, we aim to train our students to become graduates who have the clinical skills to offer better support and care to others, and the skills to investigate and analyze social structure, consciousness, and conditions.

Both courses aim to cultivate students to become higher-level professionals with clinical and communication skills, who strive to work together with the specialized academic and professional fields demanded by modern society.

Over 20 years have passed since the advent of the 21st century. In this span, society and our surroundings have entered an era of rapid change, on a global scale. Mrs. Kotaka Otsuma, the founder of this university, opened a private academy to provide instruction in needlework and handicraft in 1908, shortly after the turn of the 20th century. The 20th century was also a time of great change. Amid such changes, Otsuma Women's University promoted practical education under the educational philosophy of integrated education for the independence of women, and with the goal of fostering women with minds rich in both refinement and compassion, practical skills and practical scholarship, and the ability to play a leading role in society as specialized professionals.

The provision of higher education, much like the provision of elementary and secondary education, is mandated by society. As such, it is of course required to cater to societal changes. At the same time, however, certain pursuits must be maintained, regardless of changes in society and our surroundings; that is, individuals should, through their university education, acquire the capacity to think for themselves, assess matters subjectively, and make decisions by themselves. No matter how our society or surroundings may change, individuals will always be required to think, not merely memorize. Therein lies the first step of university education.

At the same time, university education must be able to adapt appropriately to such changes. Against a backdrop of widening disparities in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, the world seems to have reached a turning point, that of the rise of anti-globalism, as exemplified by Brexit and the whirlwind that is the Trump presidency. Nevertheless, this anti-globalist sentiment is unlikely to be able to halt the trend worldwide of the cross-border and universal flow of people, goods, money, and information. The practical skills and practical scholarship needed in such a time are new and specialized knowledge and skills that are befitting this global trend. Otsuma Women's University will also do its part to help students develop such abilities.

Otsuma Women's University is currently comprised of five faculties, namely the Faculty of Home Economics, the Faculty of Language and Literature, the Faculty of Social Information Studies, the Faculty of Human Relations, and the Faculty of Comparative Culture, as well as a Junior College, and the Graduate School of Studies in Human Culture. The university will continue to strive to provide a comprehensive university education as described above. I sincerely hope that many of you reading this will aspire to become a member of Otsuma Women's University.