Japanese Studies with Foundation Year
Japanese studies is a discipline that combines the rigorous learning of one of the world's most complex languages with a deep engagement with Japan's cultural, historical, and social dimensions. Japanese is written with three interlocking scripts, has a grammatical structure quite unlike European languages, and deploys different registers and levels of formality for different social contexts. Achieving near-fluency in Japanese at undergraduate level is genuinely demanding and genuinely rewarding, opening access not only to a major world economy but to one of the richest literary, cinematic, and popular cultural traditions outside the English-speaking world.
At Birkbeck College this four-year programme includes a foundation year and has been designed around Birkbeck's research strengths in Japanese culture, history, and society. The foundation year ensures that students who are new to Japanese studies have the linguistic and academic grounding to succeed on the main degree before it begins. The programme develops your language competence from beginner level to near-fluency alongside a critical and historically informed engagement with Japan: its pre-modern history and culture, its transformation through the Meiji period and twentieth century, and its contemporary society, politics, and popular culture.
Birkbeck's evening and flexible teaching model makes this accessible to students with daytime commitments.
Graduates of Japanese studies programmes are in demand across a range of fields where Japan-facing language and cultural competence is rare and valuable. Careers in business and commerce with Japanese companies, in diplomacy and the foreign service, in translation and interpreting, in tourism, and in academic research and teaching are all accessible. Japanese popular culture has created a global industry in which language skills open specialist roles in gaming, anime, publishing, and creative industries.
Postgraduate study in Japanese studies, East Asian studies, or translation is a natural route for those who want to pursue academic careers or specialist professional roles.