The curriculum of the LL.M. and LL.D. programs aims to foster next-generation legal experts possessing the skills to navigate the multiple “cultural conflicts” characterizing today’s world. The program creates an education and research environment where individuals from different countries can co-learn, develop their problem-solving skills, and constantly improve and re-train their abilities.

The one-year master’s program (LL.M.) aims to create an education and research curriculum that combines advanced, multi-disciplinary, and principled content by combining core subjects, elective subjects, and foundational subjects. Students in the master’s program (LL.M.) must take the required credits (20 coursework credits in total) from the “Core Courses,” “Elective Courses,” and “Foundational Courses,” as well as write a master’s thesis (50 or more pages) (10 thesis credits).

Further details can be found on the curriculum in Sections 3 to 7 below.

Students in the three-year doctoral program (LL.D.) must participate in a Comprehensive Research Seminar and Research Training as compulsory core courses, take 5 credits from the “Elective Subject Group,” and write a doctoral thesis (about 300 pages).

Many social problems, divisions, and exclusions of modern society arise from so-called “cultural conflict.” Cultural differences between countries, regions, communities, genders, and generations have historically created conflicts and destabilized society. However, such conflicts have become increasingly serious and intensified in recent years, giving rise to so-called “culture wars,” which make regulatory design and enforcement increasingly challenging. Rapid technological innovation and the challenges of achieving social acceptance of new technologies have added to the challenge, as technologies have a major impact on our way of life across all domains, both domestically and internationally, while making cultural conflicts between various human groups increasingly complex.

This program examines the challenges of designing and enforcing laws and other regulatory instruments in the context of such cultural conflict.

In particular, three primary sites of cultural conflict are the focus of the programs, namely Mobility, Memory, and Machine.

Mobility relates to our ability to move, the possibility of the free movement of goods, capital, services, and information, as well as means of transportation. The gain or loss of mobility directly affects our access to resources essential for survival and opportunities for self-realization. In modern society, people, goods, capital, and information move globally, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote and virtual solutions have penetrated various aspects of daily life, partially replacing our physical movement.

Possible thesis topics related to this theme might include legal issues related to urban mobility, smart cities, the global supply chain, or digital information.

Memory refers to the function of retaining experiences and reproducing them in some way and relates to our personal and collective memories. Beyond debates over historical recognition that transcend national borders and issues of cultural property restitution, we see instances where sensitive information continues to drift online without being erased due to ICT development, making “forgetting” difficult, as seen in issues like the right to be forgotten in the context of data protection.

Possible thesis topics related to this theme might include legal issues related to cultural heritage or data protection and data governance.

Machine refers to the totality of hardware, software, and technologies that increasingly connect us to the world, mediating and structuring our relationship with the natural and social environment. With molecular robots and brain-machine interfaces, cyborgs—human-machine integrated bodies where machines work as autonomous regulatory systems without conscious awareness—are no longer science fiction but are a social reality.

Possible thesis topics related to this theme might include legal issues related to robotics, automation, the metaverse, or healthcare technologies and bioethics.

We invite applications that seek to explore topics in these or related areas of law in a world of heightened cultural conflict.

In the “Core Subject Group,” courses are assigned to help students independently identify issues related to “cultural conflict” and develop the ability to solve these problems proactively while collaborating with others.

In the Legal Studies Primer, students will learn about the economic analysis of law, comparative institutional analysis, behavioral economics, and the selection and combination of regulatory methods, to provide students enrolled on this program with a strong theoretical perspective on the role that the legal system should play in social regulation, more generally.

Science, Technology and Innovation Policy examines the three elements—Mobility, Memory, and Machine—that intensify “cultural conflicts” in contemporary society, focusing on their technological innovations and the nature of their social acceptance. The course is also open to students from natural science faculties and schools at Kyushu University, fostering an environment for interdisciplinary exploration that bridges the sciences and humanities.

Cultural Conflict Camp will bring together students enrolled in this program and graduate students enrolled in the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology at Kyushu University to discuss cutting-edge social issues in a cultural conflict and combine their different skills to work together to create and solve social problems.

The core courses, we offer are marked ◎ in the class list in Section 7 below.

This group includes courses designed to provide a fundamental perspective and skills necessary for examining issues related to “cultural conflict” across contemporary settings. Addressing these challenges in the humanities and social sciences requires principled reflection grounded in fundamental understandings. Therefore, the courses emphasize learning from philosophical and historical perspectives, particularly in foundational subjects related to law and political science, which are essential for such inquiry.

For the foundational courses, we offer courses are marked 〇 in the class list in Section 7 below.

Master’s program students are required to earn the necessary credits from the Core, Elective, and Foundational Subject Groups and write a master’s thesis (50 or more A4 pages). Doctoral program students must complete courses from the Core and Elective Subject Groups and produce a doctoral dissertation (approximately 300 A4 pages).

Students in this program are also expected to present their progress in the Research Workshop on Cultural Conflict, Law, and Policy, where they receive critical feedback from faculty and peers, refining the content of their theses or dissertations through this iterative process.

We particularly welcome scholarship applications from the ASEAN region and our expectation is that students from that area will receive 50% of the available scholarships.