<Photograph>The graduate students' room.

The Department studies the individual cultures of ethnic groups in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. It considers the characteristics and history of each culture and focuses on describing a culture and understanding its structure using ethnographic methodology. The Department fosters researchers who have high expertise and actively promote the descriptive study of individual cultures based on fieldwork.

[Educational Policies for the Department of Regional Studies]
For students in the Department of Regional Studies, Minpaku offers a wealth of printed materials, artifacts, and video and audio recordings from many parts of the world. Since Minpaku is an Inter-University Research Institute, they also have the opportunity to participate in joint projects involving leading researchers from around the world. By taking advantage of these opportunities, they receive the training they need to conduct their own high-quality research. They will also be trained in long-term fieldwork, how to present their work at international meetings, and how to manage joint research. With their supervisors as primary research advisors, each student assembles an advisory group suitable to his or her research topic; they also receive guidance from other faculty members involved in their specialty.