Professor Hirobumi Akagi
Analysis of the Economic Role of Nations, Regions, and Cities, and the Economic Effects of Their Activity

Students analyze the current status and problems of the financial systems of national and local governments and cities, as well as develop an understanding of the theory of public finance and examine contemporary policy debates.
Seminar objectives include learning the principles of public spending, taxation, public debt, and local finance, from the perspective of both systems and theory.

Professor Chiharu Inaba
International Relations: Urban, Regional and National

International politics today encompass a variety of problems. In many areas, conflict is unceasing, terrorism is taking place, and the environment is being destroyed. Globalization of the economy continues to advance while at the same time, nationalism has been on the rise. This seminar takes a historical approach to analysis of the current status of international politics. The desire is to be able to understand efforts to achieve solutions to what is transpiring in the international community. Each student will be required to write a thesis related to international politics.

Professor Takashi Uno
Web Programming

In the current networked society, knowledge and skills related to the Web have become one of the most important things to have.
In addition, in our social life, a mathematical thinking and an educational approach are extremely important in helping to make judgments and decisions in a rational manner by collecting and sifting through necessary information.
Based on the themes of Web programming and mathematical information, this seminar pursues in-depth computer-related research and study.

Professor Eiji Ohno
Project Assessment

The aim of this seminar is to acquire the perspective to assess the viability of projects related to national land policy (e.g., relocation of the national capital functions, consolidation of municipalities), infrastructure development (e.g., transportation facility development, disaster prevention facility development), and responses to global environmental issues (e.g., countermeasures against sea level rise and coastal pollution) through understanding their respective social backgrounds, significance, and issues, and through analysis of their impacts on the social economy.

Professor Shigenori Kamata
Social Security and Community Welfare through Market Mechanisms

Third-year students will read in turns Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money in Japanese. This book elucidated for the first time the mechanism that leads to unemployment, and at the same time, discusses countermeasures to it. Relief for the unemployed is the greatest pillar of social security, and it is also the issue currently most in dispute.
Fourth-year students will conduct graduate research according to their own chosen theme and compile the results in a paper.

Professor Eiji Kamei
Landscape Analysis and Planning

In recent years, the urban landscape has become a focus of interest as a way of evaluating the environment from a visual perspective, and creating a pleasing landscape has become a societal demand.
The aim of this seminar is to analyze the characteristics possessed by a landscape and incorporate the results in actual planning. By acquiring a range of basic knowledge and expanding the exercises related to mastery of basic skills, students will be involved in research on themes related to the landscape.

Professor Yuka Karatani
Urban Safety and Security Management

1. Development of citizen participatory disaster preparedness map-making support tools and their deployment in disaster preparedness education
   Knowing natural external forces well and being familiar with the local community are two important points in preparing for disasters and in considering local disaster preparedness. The seminar develops a disaster preparedness map-making support tool to enable a well-balanced approach to learning these and links it to educating the citizenry with a sustained awareness of disaster preparedness. In addition, based on lessons learned and the experience of past disasters, students will explore disaster preparedness education programs aimed at schools.

2. Proposals for urban crime prevention strategies as viewed in terms of urban structure and the moral level of the citizenry
   Recently, the number of incidents of children being attacked in familiar surroundings such as city parks and green spaces has been on the rise, and incorporating the perspective of a "town safe and secure from crime" in city planning has become a pressing issue. Accordingly, students will use a GIS (geographic information system) to analyze the spatial relationships between a city's urban structure (hard aspects) and the moral level of the citizenry (soft aspects) to get a handle on the occurrence of crime and its factors in the region, and will discuss strategies to prevent urban crime.

3. Proposals for ways and means to evaluate and develop barrier-free transportation systems
   Students will trace the history behind efforts in various countries to make public transport accessible, and then explore methods to evaluate barrier-free designs that take into account the changes in people's values and income levels accompanying social and economic development. For example, students will target countries and regions whose development situations differ, such as the US and China. They will then conduct interviews and questionnaire surveys on barrier-free designs and systems, and using these evaluation strategies, measure and verify the benefits, and propose ways and means appropriate to the country concerned based on the results.

Professor Satoshi Koike
Environment Creation in Rural Areas (the "Countryside")

This seminar is based on three key research concepts: 1) building community around "farming", 2) "green" tourism, and (3) urban ecology (eco cities). Each student will establish a research theme associated with at least one of the key concepts above in line with his or her own interests and complete a thesis.
The seminar also has programs to increase the motivation to do work related to the environment and urban amenities.

Professor Yasuhito Shimada
Business Management and Accounting Information

Today in Japan, accounting systems have changed significantly in response to the trend toward globalization. It is popularly known as the accounting Big Bang. Its impact is extending broadly to what the role of management of a company should be. Since their inception, accounting systems have been constantly revised in response to changes in the business environment. This is because accounting and business management have evolved and developed while having a mutual impact on each other. The objective of this seminar is to gain a deeper understanding of accounting and to study the role that accounting information plays in corporate management.

Professor Shin Sugiura
Mathematical Planning

Mathematical planning and operations research (OR) are used with the aim of analyzing and solving various problems in the real world. The objective of this seminar is to write a graduate thesis using mathematical planning and OR. Students will select a theme related to issues of management, economics, and urban social problems. They will collect and analyze data and evaluate various problems in urban areas and in society.

Professor Shinichiro Sugiura
Human Geography--Geographical Study of Socio-economic Activities in Modern Japan

The objective of this seminar is to identify various social and economic activities of people in cities and rural areas of Japan, and empirically determine the reality of the situation from a geographical point of view, such as regional features and/or differences with other regions, or relationships between regions. Setting a research target and research theme will require that students proactively select from among a broad range of topics, including various types of industry, governments, civic life, social welfare, etc., according to their own intellectual interests and awareness of issues.

Professor Atsuo Suzuki
The Science of Management

Students will make a selection from and conduct research on a range of topics focusing on operations research and also including applied probability theory and the like.

Professor Shengping Zhang
Planning of Urban Water Utilization Systems

Primary research topics include:

1. Evaluation of the reliability of urban water supply systems
2. Municipal wastewater reuse for environmental improvement and for water supply during natural disasters
3. Impacts of global climate change on urban drainage systems
4. Environmental evaluation of public water bodies and pollutant control
5. Planning of urban drainage systems
6. Urban water environment planning

The thesis theme for each student will be chosen from the above topics with careful consideration given to both the interests and the capabilities of each student.

Professor Masaaki Teshima
Urban Problems and Public Policy

The ultimate goal of this seminar is for students to complete a research project of their own and compile the results in a thesis. Students usually advance toward completing a thesis through dialog, discussion, reporting, presentation, training, and research, but in this seminar, students focus on reporting, presentation, and discussion. The intention is to strengthen the student's capabilities required to put together a thesis, including identifying issues, searching and collecting related literature, analyzing problems, synthesizing, and proposing solutions.

Professor Shigeru Fukushima
Understanding the Image and Planning Principles of the City of the 21st Century

The goal of this seminar is to understand the image of the city of the 21st century and consider the concepts behind its planning. To gain perspective in thinking about this, five viewpoints will be offered: 1) population ageing and population decline; 2) decentralization of governmental power and civic participation; (3) growing environmental awareness; (4) the information-driven society; and (5) globalization of the economy and internationalization of cities. Students will select one theme from among these and by focusing their research over two years, come to understand the image of the city of the 21st century and consider its planning concepts through presentations and discussions.

Professor Yuki Miyamoto
Economics Analysis on Cities (Regions)

Students will write a thesis on a subject of their own choosing. Students will learn information collection, presentation, and how to engage in discussions while also acquiring the knowledge necessary to do so.

Professor Takafumi Mizuno
Mathematical Model Expression and Implementation for Computer Decision-Making and Information Processing

Students will pursue the following themes through their research activities:

1. Technical writing.
2. Mathematical model expression.
3. C languages (3, 4, and more computer exercises).
4. Implementing information based on computer languages to support decision-making activities.

Professor Masafumi Morisugi
Systems Engineering and Approaches to Economic Assessments for Local Environments and Resource Recycling

Although both population and consumption of resources will decline with the advent of population ageing, this will, at the same time, have a detrimental impact on local government finances and economic vitality. Also, if there is no change in the way living spaces are spread out, the transportation efficiency for materials and waste will decrease, and instead, resource consumption per capita will rise. Under these circumstances, regions must develop higher-quality living environments as a strategy to prevent population outflow. With a basic awareness of the above problems, this seminar will examine the role of policies that incorporate the environment in the region in their viewpoints.

Professor Katsu Yamatani
Mathematics for Digital Technology

Students will experience the fun of mathematical science through a variety of applications.
They will come to understand the difficulty in giving shape to their ideas and images.
They will also learn logical thinking and its mode of expression.

Professor Hiroshi Wakabayashi
Transport Planning, Traffic Engineering, Disaster Preparedness Planning, Traffic Signage Research, and Evaluation of Safety Measures to Prevent Traffic Accidents

Students will set a schedule with the goal of completing a thesis. Applicants should bear in mind that there can be no graduation without completion of a thesis. Students can be confident that this seminar is worthwhile because of its established reputation with previous graduates. The plan is to make reading related literature and learning computer languages (C, FORTRAN, HP language) the basic seminar study units. Because the seminar is computer intensive, students who are interested in or who are open to programming and PCs are encouraged to apply.