• upage_Waseda

    Waseda University
    Tokyo, Japan

    Founded in 1882 by Shigenobu Okuma, once prime minister and regarded as the father of Japanese national modernization, Waseda University is one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. It comprises thirteen undergraduate, seventeen graduate and five professional graduate schools covering most areas of social and natural sciences, liberal arts and engineering, with over 54,000 students and 5,000 faculty members on eight campuses, four of which are located in central Tokyo.

    Currently, there are more than 5,000 foreign students enrolled at Waseda. The number of foreign students at Waseda is the highest among universities in Japan. The university has agreements with 868 organizations in 94 countries to date, concerning student and faculty exchange programs. Furthermore, there are ‘double degree’ programs with leading universities in Asia-Pacific region as well as network-type cooperative colloquiums via the Internet, to support the student and faculty members involved in the exchange programs.

    Waseda University has a large number of alumni, about 640,000 in Japan and around the world. Waseda is famous for its distinguished graduates dispersed not only across business and political circles in Japan but also worldwide. So far, seven prime ministers of the Japanese government have been Waseda alumni. Waseda graduates are very active and influential in such field as politics, law, journalism and mass communications, art and sports. Among them are excellent entrepreneurs contributing to scientific breakthroughs and creating globally prestigious firms as well as current and former presidents and CEOs of top multinational companies. The university has 400 alumni associations throughout Japan and more than 1,100 including alumni associations within companies, not to mention the 40 Waseda associations overseas.

    Website: http://www.waseda.jp/top/en/

    VSE Season 1, 2021-22: Courses offered by Waseda University


    Application Deadline

    APPLICATION CLOSED
    Students must submit an application to the VSE Central Office before:
    Aug 17 2021, 12:00 noon Hong Kong Time (UTC+8)


    Course Information

    Click on the course titles to reveal full course details:

    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Political Science and Economics
    Course TeacherProf. YAGI, Naoko
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 30, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 20, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeThu 1445-1615
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    Course-specific RestrictionsA TOEFL (PBT) score of 550 or above (or equivalent) is required.
    Points to Note for StudentsIf you have missed five Zoom sessions or more, you will automatically receive a "fail" mark for the course. Your attendance will be counted when you have viewed all the videos for the session in question. Prior to each class session, students will read the assigned part of the text and watch videos on Moodle, which altogether should take about 90 minutes.
    Course Description This course is intended primarily for students who are familiar with the name Oscar Wilde but have never read any of his plays, novels, poems, or critical essays. Focusing on the year 1895, when Wilde--at the height of his fame as a dramatist--was prosecuted for homosexual behavior, found guilty, and sent to prison, the course will take up one of his plays along with transcripts of the courtroom exchanges and a long letter that he wrote while in prison.

    We will first analyze and discuss the play An Ideal Husband, which was a huge commercial success at the time of the author's arrest. A few class sessions will then be devoted to going through the courtroom transcripts: we will see that Wilde spoke almost like one of the characters from An Ideal Husband. Finally, we will read part of Wilde's letter to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, which was later published as De Profundis.

    Throughout the course, our primary theme will be "individualism" in the context of late-nineteenth-century English society. To what extent was Wilde an "individual"? In what ways did the values and norms of Victorian England affect Wilde as an author, as a socialite, and as a homosexual? It is hoped that students will also look beyond Victorian England and test their analyses of the play, the transcripts, and the letter against other social circumstances in other periods of time.

    All the fifteen class sessions will take place on Zoom.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Commerce
    Course TeacherProf. OSAKI, Yusuke

     Prof. TANIGAWA, Yasuhiko

    Prof. HIROTA, Shinichi
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 28, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 18, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeTue 1300-1430
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsFor students in 2nd year and above only.
    Points to Note for StudentsStudents are required to read the textbooks before the class. It is expected to take 2-3 hours per class.
    Course DescriptionThis course introduces basic knowledge of finance, which is crucial for doing business and managing companies. We all know that the main goal of business is to “make profits.” Then, the questions are “How do we measure profits?”: “How much profit should a company make from its business?”: “How much returns do banks and shareholders expect in return for providing funds?": "How can a company hedge its future business risks?" This course answers these questions.

    In the course, students study concepts, theories, and practices of corporate finance and look at companies from the finance perspective. Having financial knowledge and perspectives are essential not only for future financial managers and CEOs but also for anyone engaged in business.

    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Social Sciences
    Course TeacherProf. IEDA, Osamu
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 29, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 26, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeWed 1630-1800
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsN/A
    Points to Note for StudentsWe use some academic papers for the class. Before and after the class the participants of the class are requested to read and to review them. It takes one hour or one hour and half to finish.
    Course DescriptionThis class is offered to learn how the social systems work or do not work to re-establish sustainability in a case of disaster. A sustainable society has resilience to cope with a severe crisis, such as wars or disasters. In contrst, if the crisis management fails, the disaster grows catastrophe, resulting in collapse of the social system. We analyze two nuclear disasters in Chernobyland Fukushima, comparing them from a viewpoint of social sustainability.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Culture, Media and Society
    Course TeacherProf. REEVES, Kristopher
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 28, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 25, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeTue 1040-1210
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsN/A
    Points to Note for StudentsStudents will not be required to purchase any textbook for this course. All required and supplementary reading material for this course will be provided to students, in one form or another, by the instructor. Students are not expected to have any previous knowledge of either Japanese literature or the Japanese language. All readings and discussions will be in English.
    Course DescriptionIn this course, we will explore a wide variety of texts embracing an assortment of time-periods and genres, in hopes of gaining a deeper appreciation of some of the perennial topics and questions in the tradition of Japanese literature. Aside from primary texts (all in English translations), we will also read a number of articles by modern-day scholars, which will help us make connections between premodern texts and modern concerns.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Social Sciences
    Course TeacherProf. HASEGAWA, Shinji
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 28, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 25, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeTue 1300-1430
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsFor students in 2nd year and above only.
    Course Description Traditionally, foreign market for companies has been nothing more than a place to export domestically produced products and import raw materials. Today, producing products overseas, conducting research and development, or providing various services to local customers is a common occurrence regardless of the nationality, industry, or size of the company.

    Once the activities and organizations of a company are globalized across national borders, problems that cannot be fully explained arise in existing academic fields where companies have been assumed to remain within the borders. International business is interdisciplinary study using knowledge, concepts and framework that have been systematized in various academic fields such as business administration, economics, politics, sociology, and psychology, to solve such problems unique to international business.

    In this lecture, we will study the principle of internationalization of firms. We will also consider on what principle the internationalisation of a company will increase efficiency and benefit the company, the individual, the economy, and society as a whole. Furthermore, we will learn how companies organize and manage various business activities that have spread around the world.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of Commerce
    Course TeacherProf. MAHMOOD, Ishtiaq Pasha
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 29, 2021
    Last Day of ClassNov 17, 2021
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeWed 1040-1210; 1300-1430
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsFor students in 3rd year and above only.
    Course Description Today, emerging markets account for 36% of the global GDP. Some estimates indicate they will represent a US$30 trillion opportunity by 2025. By that time India, China and other Asian countries will represent the lion’s share of global middle-class consumption, leaving the EU, the US and Japan trailing behind. It is where growth is going to come from and where some of the most important innovations and competitors will emerge. Yet most MNCs are currently doing a poor job exploiting these opportunities and earn just 17% of their total revenue from these markets. Why is this? What obstacles are preventing MNCs from growing their business in emerging markets and what can be done to convert these challenges into opportunities?

    All companies operating in emerging markets face two major hurdles: low purchasing power and a high number of institutional voids (e.g. poor infrastructure, limited access to health and education, pollution, lack of transparency and a weak regulatory framework). Succeeding in such an environment requires addressing both issues simultaneously. While a local company like Tata in India might be familiar with this, it is a new and inconvenient reality for large foreign MNCs that have concentrated most of their resources and focus on developed markets. These organizations have to learn how to serve customers with very different purchasing power and needs.

    From mobile money to eye surgery, frugal innovations that characterize the art of offering 80% value at 10% of the price have been the hall mark of success of many local firms in emerging economies. Offering high value at a low price requires the difficult task of combining product innovations with innovative ways of reconfiguring the delivery system. Given the importance of governments and regulators in many of these economies, an understanding of how to navigate through regulatory minefields is also critical for sustaining competitive advantage in these markets.

    This module is divided into two parts. The goal of the first half is to help students develop an intuitive understanding of strategy as a process which will be useful in the second half of the module when we apply this process directly in the context of innovations for emerging markets. While we cover a set of strategic tools, the emphasis is not on filling in frameworks and applying standard recipes. On the contrary, students will be expected to challenge recipes, question received wisdom, and exhibit an understanding of how to apply the frameworks to solve strategic obstacles.

    While the cases and the examples used in the module are primarily based on Asia, the lessons from this module apply more generally to emerging markets across Africa and Latin America. Rather than looking for one “right” answer, this module encourages debates and discussions. In some ways, this module is a cross between an executive education module on strategy formulation and implementation and a module on Asian business. Our goal is to help students develop the strategic intuition and tools they need to succeed in these emerging battlegrounds for tomorrow.
    Course OutlineDownload
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of International Liberal Studies
    Course TeacherNAGASAKA, Masumi
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 28, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 25, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeTue 1445-1615
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsN/A
    Points to Note for StudentsWhen applying to this course, students are asked to fill in the questionnaire below; LinkQuestionnaire is open from July 1st to September 30th.
    Course DescriptionThis course provides a general overview of how the relationship between thought, knowledge and feeling (judgement of the beautiful or the sublime) is considered in modern Western philosophy.
    Course OutlineTBA
    Number of Credits0
    Offering DepartmentSchool of International Liberal Studies
    Course TeacherNAGASAKA, Masumi
    Language of InstructionEnglish
    First Day of ClassSep 28, 2021
    Last Day of ClassJan 25, 2022
    Course ComponentLecture
    Mode of TeachingSynchronous
    Meeting TimeTue 1300-1430
    Time ZoneUTC+9
    RestrictionsN/A
    Points to Note for StudentsWhen applying to this course, students are asked to fill in the questionnaire below; LinkQuestionnaire is open from July 1st to September 30th.
    Course DescriptionThis course provides a general overview of the history of critical philosophy in the modern period as a succession of practices of scepticism and of attempts to overcome scepticism.By understanding that Western philosophy has developed by the practices of casting doubt on so-called self-evident matters and by successive attempts to overcome these scepticisms, students are expected to develop a critical attitude towards matters which they have previously vaguely accepted.
    Course OutlineTBA


    The number of credits is shown as provided by the course offering university. The credit structure at the course offering university may be different from the one at your home university. Please contact the VSE Coordinator of your home university for credit transfer information.

    Course enrollment is subject to final approval from your home university and the course offering university.