Research Centers

The International Student Center was established in April 1995 with the aim of providing Japanese courses for international students, as well as to give them useful advice regarding their studies and livelihood in Japan. Please refer to page 45-46 for more details.

  To Homepage of the International Student Center


The Research Center for Higher Education engages in surveys, research and development relating to curriculum, faculty development, quality assurance, and other educational issues for the improvement of teaching and learning in Kumamoto University.
The Center also contributes to implementing the university’s liberal arts curriculum in cooperation with the organizations,

  To Homepage of the Research Center for Higher Education (Japanese Only)


In April 2007, the Center for Policy Studies was reorganized by merging the former Center for Policy Studies with the Center for Lifelong Learning, which had served as an interface with the local community. The aim of the new Center for Policy Studies is to strengthen its activities.
The Center fully uses the research and educational products of Kumamoto University to create a better community, and conducts policy research to solve local issues. As a result, the Center reports achievements and offers developing technologies to solve various problems. For example, the center tackles issues in fields such as the management of local governments, the study of local policy, the activation of local communities, disaster damage prevention, city planning, public traffic, health and welfare policy, environmental conservation, the promotion of industry, and more.
In addition, in order to nurture future leaders in local policy making, the Center cooperates with institutes both inside and outside of Kumamoto University. The Center also actively promotes lifelong learning based on the achievements of educational research in the fields of the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences at Kumamoto University.
The main activities of the Center are as follows:
(1) Finding solutions to local community issues in cooperation with the Social Sciences, Humanities, and Natural Sciences.
(2) Lifelong Learning to enhance the intellectual standards of citizens and communities.
(3) Promotion of research on the construction of a sustainably safe and prosperous society.
(4) Promotion of research in collaboration with citizens.
(5) Improvement of the quality of education and research.
(6) Prompt action corresponding with the needs of communities.

  To Homepage of the Center for Policy Studies (Japanese only)