Welcome to IUJ and the environmental policy program (EPP). This program is very unique in the sense that it provides a six-month intensive graduate-level education, and the focus is on the study of environmental policy issues from a social science point of view. The aims of the EPP are (i) to educate students with cutting-edge knowledge in the social sciences related to environmental problems, such as environmental economics, through rigorous course-work and other activities, and (ii) to help students learn how to formulate, implement and manage sound environmental policies.
Environmental policies cannot be implemented without the knowledge of the natural science of environmental problems. However, that is not enough, given the emergence of new environmental policy paradigms such as marketable pollution permits or transferable fishery rights that have occurred in recent years. This paradigm change has been made through a series of new ideas generated from the social sciences such as economics and politics, and it implies that we need to have analytical skill and knowledge of such fields to analyze environmental policies. This is one of the motivations that brought IUJ to establish the EPP with a social science focus.
In addition to the formal training of coursework, the EPP offers extracurricular activities like seminar series, field trips, and case studies. With these, students can also gain practical knowledge and will have many chances to know more about the history of Japanese environmental problems as well as about how the Japanese government has solved them in the industrialization process. This is another unique aspect of the EPP.
We believe that the formal training and extra-curricular activities provided in the EPP will be valuable lifelong assets for students. We are very happy to have students from any background, and what you need is only the motivation to study. For instance, those who specialized in natural sciences or engineering, but would like to study the principles of social sciences associated with environmental policies can be good candidates for this program. We are looking forward to teaching highly motivated individuals who desire to solve environmental problems.
