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Requirements

The Japanese program offers a major, supplementary major, and minor. We also offer a Japanese International Economics major. Students have the opportunity to pursue the honors track.

Major

Students pursuing a major in Japanese must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of Japanese coursework which must also include the requirements outlined below. 

  1. Language Study: At a minimum, completion of third-year Japanese or its equivalent. Majors are strongly encouraged to achieve more advanced proficiency by completing fourth-year Japanese and/or advanced Japanese.
    • If students take their entire language sequence at Notre Dame, this will result in 16 hours beyond the first year. Students who place out of third-year at any point are encouraged to complete more advanced courses beyond the third year. Students who place out of third-year at the time of their first placement test are required to take a minimum of 6 credit hours of Japanese language classes.
    • 10000 level language courses do not count toward a major, supplementary major, or minor. Students are allowed to use a maximum of 3 credits from courses beyond the first-year level that carry less than 3 credits to fulfill requirements of the major in Japanese.
    • Students with grades lower than B- are not advised to proceed to the next level.
  2. Literature and Culture: Three upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature and Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty, including at least one literature course. Any exception must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. University Seminars do not satisfy this requirement.
  3. Remaining credits may be completed by taking Japanese language courses beyond third year level and regular 3-credit courses designated as LLEA at the 30000 level and above.

*Courses taken as Pass/Fail do not count toward the Japanese major, supplementary major, or minor.

Checklist For Japanese Majors

  1. Completion of Third Year Japanese (EALJ 30312) or its equivalent
  2. Three upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature and Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty, including at least one literature course
    1. Japanese literature course taught by EALC faculty 
      1. LLEA 3XXXX 
    2. Two other upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature or Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty
      1. LLEA 3XXXX 
      2. LLEA 3XXXX 
    3. A total of 30 credits 

Checklist document for Japanese majors

Questions? Please contact our DUS, Prof. Xian Wang.

Supplementary Major

Students pursuing a supplementary major in Japanese must complete a minimum of 24 credit hours of Japanese coursework which must also include the requirements outlined below.

  1. Language Study: At a minimum, completion of third-year Japanese or its equivalent.
    • If students take their entire language sequence at Notre Dame, this will result in 16 hours beyond the first year. Students who place out of third-year at any point are encouraged to complete more advanced courses beyond the third year. Students who place out of third-year at the time of their first placement test are required to take a minimum of 6 credit hours of Japanese language classes.
    • 10000 level language courses do not count toward a major, supplementary major, or minor.
    • Students are allowed to use a maximum of 2 credits from language reading courses beyond the first-year level that carry less than 3 credits to fulfill requirements of the supplementary major in Japanese.
    • Students with grades lower than B- are not advised to proceed to the next level.
  2. Literature and Culture: Two upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature and Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty, including at least one literature course. Any exception must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. University Seminars do not satisfy this requirement.
  3. Remaining credits may be completed by taking Japanese language courses beyond third-year level and regular 3-credit courses designated as LLEA at the 30000 level and above.

*Courses taken as Pass/Fail do not count toward the Japanese major, supplementary major, or minor.

Checklist For Japanese Supplementary Majors

  1. Completion of Third Year Japanese (EALJ 30312) or its equivalent
  2. Two upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature and Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty, including at least one literature course
    1. Japanese literature course taught by EALC faculty
      1. LLEA 3XXXX
    2. One other upper-division 3-credit course in Japanese literature or Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty
      1. LLEA 3XXXX 
  3. A total of 24 credits 

Checklist document for Japanese supplementary majors

Questions? Please contact our DUS, Prof. Xian Wang.

Japanese International Economics Major

For information regarding the requirements for the Japanese International Major, please click here.

Questions? Please contact our DUS, Prof. Xian Wang.

Minor

Students pursuing a minor in Japanese must complete a minimum of 15 credit hours of Japanese coursework which must also include the requirements outlined below.

  1. Language Study: Students must complete at least two semesters of the language or the equivalent, beyond the first year.
    • 10000 level language courses do not count toward a major, supplementary major, or minor.
    • Students are allowed to use a maximum of 1 credit from courses beyond the first-year level that carry less than 3 credits to fulfill requirements of the minor in Japanese.
    • Students with grades lower than B- are not advised to proceed to the next level.
  2. Literature and Culture: At least one upper-division 3-credit course in Japanese literature or Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty. Any exception must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. University Seminars do not satisfy this requirement.
  3. Remaining credits may be completed by taking Japanese language courses beyond second year level and regular 3-credit courses designated as LLEA at the 30000 level and above.

Checklist For Japanese Minors

  1. Completion of two semesters of Japanese beyond the first year or its equivalent 
  2. One upper-division 3-credit courses in Japanese literature or Japanese culture taught by EALC faculty 
  3. A total of 15 credits 

Checklist document for Japanese minors

Questions? Please contact our DUS, Prof. Xian Wang.

Honors Track

The honors track in Japanese requires a minimum of 33 credit hours:

Majors in Japanese are strongly encouraged to pursue the honors track. Those who are interested must meet the following criteria:

  • Fulfillment of all the requirements for the major, 30 credit hours in Japanese;
  • Completion of fourth-year Japanese;
  • A cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 and a GPA of at least 3.7 in the major or permission from the Department Chair.

Requirements: In addition to the 30 hours required for a major, the honors track requires the completion of a senior honors thesis that demonstrates the student's originality and ability to do research in the field of study.

  • Students are admitted into the honors track in the spring semester of their junior year and will enroll in a year-long course of study in the fall semester of their senior year.
  • Students are encouraged to apply for summer research grants between their junior and senior year to prepare for writing their senior honors thesis. Summer research grants for this purpose are available on a competitive basis from the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA), the Kellogg Institute, the Office for Undergraduate Studies, the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Excellence (CUSE), among others.
  • The senior honors thesis is a year-long, one on one experience with a faculty member that comprises two-semester courses of 3 credit hours each.
  • The fall semester course may be a regularly scheduled upper division course or an individually designed course with the thesis advisor; these 3 credit hours may count toward the major.
  • The spring semester course is the senior thesis-writing course; for completion of this course, the student receives 3 credits beyond the 30 credits required for the major.
  • The senior honors thesis must be submitted by the College deadline of late March or early April that is announced each year in the fall.

Recent Japanese senior thesis

Questions? Please contact our DUS, Prof. Xian Wang.