Bilingual (LL.M.) Program

The Bilingual Master’s (LL.M.) degree program in Law (BiP) offers students the unique opportunity to engage in graduate level study of law in a “bilingual” environment at a law faculty in Japan. The program seeks to overcome one of the principal obstacles to graduate legal education in Japan, namely language, by providing students with the possibility of taking classes and writing a thesis in English, as well as Japanese. As such, the program facilitates rapid improvement in Japanese ability whilst allowing students to engage in classroom study and supervised research across a wide range of subjects in the field of law.

All BiP students will be expected to complete a 20-credit coursework curriculum and to submit a Master’s Thesis on any topic in law.

• English courses available (from the IEBL program page)
• Japanese courses available (from the Faculty of Law website in Japanese)

BiP is taught on a full time basis and takes a minimum of 12 months for completion, beginning in either April or September every year and ending in March or September of the following year. Students are given the option of participating in a summer internship program at a Japanese law firm after the program is formally completed.

BiP Key Points:

• Flexible curriculum comprising courses taught in Japanese and English

• Master’s thesis to be written in Japanese or English

• Japanese language courses for all ability levels, as well as other East Asian languages

  For more information on Kyushu University’s language courses, see http://www.isc.kyushu-u.ac.jp/center/home.htm

• Internship program at Tokyo-based law firms, companies, & government agencies

• One-year program with option of 6-12 months extension

• Courses for credit at international partner institutions

Core partner institutions offering such courses include, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok; Hong Kong University; Leuven University, Belgium; & New York University Law School.

Full details on the program are in the BiP Pamphlet available here.

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