• Chinese Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Korean Studies
• Mongolian and Inner-Asian Studies
• Buddhology and Tibetan Studies

Department of Japanese Studies

The Department of Japanese Studies at ELTE University is the oldest such institution in Hungarian higher education, and has offered Japanese major programs since 1986. Our department is unique in Hungary, being the only institution providing Japanese studies at every level: BA, MA and PhD. The main focus of our BA programme is the Japanese language, taught by our native language instructors. Besides language training we offer classes in different areas of Japanese studies, such as culture, history, literature and linguistics as well. Students taking our MA course are able to deepen their understanding in small-group seminars concentrating on narrower research fields, while doctorate students are encouraged to pursue their own research interests with guidance from the teachers at our PhD program.

History

Language education in Japanese at Eötvös Loránd University started as early as the 1930s, and continued after the war in the 1950s at the Department of Chinese and East Asian Studies.

The Japanese major as an individual educational program at university level started in 1986. In the beginning the program was a so-called “B major”, which means that students who had already been offered a place at the University could apply for a one-year-long basic training program, and after completing it they could become students of the Japanese major. In 1994 Japanese became an “A major”, i.e. students became able to start their university studies within the framework of Japanese Studies from the very beginning.

In 1996 the program was accorded independent status and a so-called Academic Group for Japanese Studies was established. This later became the Department of Japanese Studies. The PhD program of the Department was started in 2006, from which year onwards our students could study in separate bachelor and master programs within the framework of the Bologna system. In 2009 the number of applicants was three times as high as it had been earlier and it continues to rise.

Education

At the BA level (3 years), Japanese can be chosen within the BA in Oriental Languages and Cultures. Potential students must specify their choice already upon applying.

The Japanese BA can also be completed as a minor. For students with another major, a program of 50 credits in Japanese studies enables them to master modern Japanese and the basics of Japanese culture.

After obtaining a BA degree, students can continue their studies with a 2-year MA in Japanese studies, which includes both modern Japanese language and cultural studies, as well as classical fields such as philology, linguistics, and history of ideas.

ELTE students taking the Japanese major have established a long tradition of good results in examinations for Japanese scholarships and national student competitions, and doctoral students are very successful in winning research scholarships issued by our partner institutions in Japan.

After obtaining an MA degree, those with scholarly ambitions can enrol for a PhD program in Japanese Studies (4 years), where they can concentrate on their scholarly research and obtain their doctorate.

Main research fields at the Department

Full-time lecturers of the department conduct research in the fields of
* Japanese History
* Japanese Art
* Literature
* History of Thought
* History of Martial Arts
* Cultural Anthropology and Folklore Studies.

Through our international co-operation with institutions abroad, every year several guest professors provide intensive courses and lectures on various Japan-related topics.