What does human development mean? It means discovering and extending the various abilities that a human or a group potentially possesses to achieve the well-being of each and every person. Established in 1992, the Faculty of Human Development has assumed the long tradition of the Faculty of Education. It was the first Faculty in Japan launched to conduct education and research on issues concerning human development.

To promote this research, the Graduate School of Human Sciences was reorganized in 2007 and the Graduate School of Human Development and Environment was established. With over one hundred faculty members, the Faculty and the Graduate School is a pioneering academic community pursuing the free exchange of various scholarly knowledge.

The Graduate School of Human Development and Environment consists of two departments: the Department of Human Development which consists of Psychological Development and Health Promotion, Human Expression, Human Behavior, Education and Learning; and the Department of Human Environmental Science which consists of Natural Environmental Science, Mathematics and Informatics, Living Environment, and Social Environment. The two departments are two wheels to support and hold the whole system.

The Department of Human Development explores an effective way to unravel the real image of human development by promoting research of complex academic field type. This is a new approach in which related academic fields are mutually connected, and academic perspectives accumulated in the fields are joined as an organic whole when one faces difficult problems in human development.

The Department of Human Environmental Science works on problems concerning the question: what is the optimum environment that induces, supports, and assists human development, and how is it formed? A characteristic of the department is to approach such problems from many diversified areas with strong background.

There are approximately 200 students enrolled in the master’s program and 70 students in the doctoral program. The master’s program is a two-year program, and the master’s degree is awarded after the course work is completed and the thesis has been approved. The doctoral program continues after the master’s program for three-years, and the doctoral degree is awarded after successfully defending one’s dissertation. The defining characteristic of the Graduate School is to acquire an advanced academic ability to build up an identity in one’s specialty by capturing multifaceted, comparative phenomenon. The Graduate School offers an advanced research environment where students take the initiative in pursuing fundamental, applied and practical education, activities to foster eminent professors and researchers, and the Overseas Study Tour to conduct practical education and research.

The Graduate School holds Academic Exchange Weeks every fall. Many researchers are invited from overseas, and a series of research meetings are held during this period. Not only faculty members but also graduate and undergraduate students take an active role in the events. It is a great opportunity for participants to discuss problems beyond their field of research.