The Japanese Department developed in step with Shenzhen University. Located in the Special Administrative Region of China, it functions as a window to the outside world. In 1983, the department began undertaking the task of teaching Japanese for the whole school; this was officially established in 1995. With an intake of 40-50 undergraduates a year, the department is a training base for Japanese professionals in Shenzhen. Since the launch of the MA program in 2012, six to eight students were enrolled every year for the research areas of Japanese language, Japanese Literature and Culture and Japanese Education.
Currently, there are 14 full-time faculty members in the department, which includes one professor, four associate professors, six lecturers, and three assistant professors. Among them, 11 have doctorates and three earned their master's degrees from well-known universities like Osaka University, Kyoto University, Peking University, and Nankai University. All the staff have either studied or visited Japan as scholars. The research interests of the faculty are balanced and diverse, covering literature, linguistics, history, education, and sociology etc. The research areas are interdisciplinary and support each other to guarantee the choice of high-quality and diverse professional courses. In terms of scientific research, the department shows strong commitment to research output. The faculty have carried out funded projects supported by the National Social Sciences, and the Ministry of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and various vertical and horizontal funded projects of Shenzhen. They also published numerous papers in domestic and international academic journals, as well as many academic monographs and translated books.
The department implements teaching for beginners with no prior knowledge of Japanese and adopts the training mode of “basic language skills and major orientation” in the form of small-sized classes. The courses are focused on the learning and training of the students' basic skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. While the training provides students with practical skills, it also values humanistic cultivation, based on which purpose it provides the core and innovative short courses such as the basic Japanese linguistics, introduction to the Japanese literature and culture, selected readings of the classic Japanese literature, the Japanese history, Japanese philosophy etc. These courses enrich the knowledge structure of the students and cultivate students with international vision and research ability. In June 2016, the department established the East Asian Research Center. Based in Shenzhen, it serves the region with a global view, and actively explores new paths for research on East Asia in the new era. The center vigorously collects professional books and materials, holds regular reading meetings, and invites well-known scholars and young scholars at home and abroad to give lectures every year for academic exchange with teachers and students. In this way, it aims to expand the students' horizons and cultivate their sense of academic thinking and research.
The department began international exchanges quite early in many ways. 1. It cooperated with many famous universities in Japan for friendly exchanges. These universities include Japan Meiji University, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka University, Oita University, Kanagawa University, Waseda University, Osaka City University. Each year, it sends students to study in Japan for a period between six months and one year; 2. It cooperated with the Sapporo University to establish a 2+2 double degree program conducted in two universities, through which students can get a double degree acknowledged by both universities and become interdisciplinary talents mastering Japanese and other skills. 3. It cooperated with Kyushu Foreign Language School in Japan to establish a training and counselling base for students who aim to further their study in Japan to gain a master's degree.
The graduates from the department have a high employment rate. They are mainly employed by Japanese-funded enterprises, trading companies, banks, and cultural institutions in Shenzhen and other cities of Guangdong Province. In the employment market, their competitiveness is even higher than some of the first-tier universities listed as 985 or 211 universities by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. According to the MAX report, the rate for the alumni recommendation and satisfaction of the Japanese department were 100% and 97% respectively. The employers think highly of the graduates from the department due to their overall outstanding quality, their down-to-earth attitude and innovative spirit.
