Founded in 1982, the Department of Japanese Language and Literature is among the first in Jiangsu Province to offer a Japanese program. It began to confer master’s degree in 2007 and doctorate in 2016, which forms a complete student development system of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees. In its nearly 40 years of developmwent, the department has trained a large number of applied and research professionals in Japanese for the country.
The Department has 25 teachers, including 3 professors, 3 associate professors and 19 lecturers; 1 doctoral supervisor, 5 graduate supervisors; and among them 10 hold doctoral degrees. The faculty is well-structured, has rich teaching experience and excellent academic achievement. All the faculty members have the experience of study, academic visit, or further training overseas. At the same time, three to four native Japanese teachers are employed to undertake teaching tasks. In recent years, under the guidance of the Institute of Japanese Studies of the School of Foreign Languages, teachers in the department have achieved some important research results, and have undertaken seven projects of the National Social Science Fund, including two key or major projects, three projects of the Jiangsu and Ministerial Social Science Funds, and many other research projects at various levels. Up to now, more than 10 academic monographs and textbooks have been published, and influential research papers are published in academic journals at home and abroad every year.
Our students have solid basic language skills and strong practical skills, and have been awarded such important honours as the champion of the National Japanese Language Knowledge Contest, the Grand Prize of the East China Japanese Speech Contest, the first prize of the Jiangsu University Japanese Speech Contest, and the second prize of the Jiangsu Province Japanese dubbing contest. Since the enrollment of students in 2007, more than 60 have graduated with master’s degrees, and have been awarded such important honours as the second prize of the National Excellent Master's Thesis and the first prize of the Japanese Translation Competition.
The Department attaches great importance to the exchange and cooperation with Japanese universities, and since 1987, it has established long-term friendly cooperation and exchange with more than 20 Japanese universities, including Waseda University, Tokyo Gakugei University, Meiji University, Kanazawa University, Kansai Gakuin University and Hanazono University. It sends teachers and undergraduate, master and doctoral students to Japan every year for further study, lectures or exchange study, and receives Japanese students and scholars. In addition, the Department also has co-operative study programs, university scholarship programs, overseas study support programs for outstanding undergraduates and summer programs, which meet the needs of students who wish to study or do research in Japan.
Many of the graduates of the Department have pursued further studies at top universities at home and abroad, such as Peking University, Renmin University, Nanjing University, Fudan University, Kyoto University, Waseda University, Keio University, etc. Some of them hold positions in the world’s first-class enterprises such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Tokyo Marine Insurance, NTT, etc. Most of them have been highly praised by their universities and employers.
We aim high, work hard and achieve much. Suzhou, a paradise on earth, is a vibrant and attractive city with many Japanese companies and a booming economy. The Department looking forward to excellent scholars and students joining us.
