In order to study the state of cultures in modern societies and to find ways to take on such contemporary issues like intercultural conflict and dispute, it is necessary to look into regional cultures, study intercultural exchange, and develop the ability to investigate the state of world culture under globalization.

To achieve this objective, the Graduate School of Intercultural Studies offers the following two departments:

• Cultural Interaction, which undertakes multidimensional research into intercultural exchange based on studies of each regional cultures, and
• Culture and Globalization, which researches the contemporary issues in globalizing cultures.

Cultural Interaction is further broken down into:

• Area Studies for the interdisciplinary study of each regional society and culture and，
• Intercultural Communication for the multidimensional exploration of the cross-cultural contacts, conflicts, and exchange.

The aim in this section of the graduate school is to:

• (1) understand the culture of various regions
• (2) comprehend intercultural relationships and exchange
• (3) and to cultivate intercultural communication skills.

Culture and Globalization, on the other hand, is broken down into the following four strands:

• Contemporary Culture and Society, which studies contemporary societies and cultures under the faltering modern Western principles.
• Human Communication and Information Science, which explores verbal and non-verbal communication, and issues related to the use of diverse information media.
• Second Language Education, which conducts advanced research in second language education and produces outstanding professionals in the field of language teaching.
• Advanced Communication, which is a joint research group with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR).

With these research initiatives this section of the graduate school seeks to:

1. define the cultural changes caused by globalization and build a new public culture;
2. develop advanced methods of global communication;
3. and design second language education systems in the era of globalization.