Teachers：YUI Kiyomitsu

Lesson Topic

The Place of V 4 Countries in Europe and Japan. :V4 Countries means Visegrad Four countries that consists of Czech, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary.

This is the special course funded by Visegrad Fund designed to teach the place and significance of V4 countries in EU and Japan.

This course is very unique in its first full trial of investigation into the relationship between Japan and the V4 countries in Japanese University from social science viewpoints.

Students who wish to take Educational Program on Current Japan can also take this course. Class is taught in English and mixture of overseas and Japanese students. Eminent scholars from V4 country will teach as guest speakers.

Lesson target

The course is about consideration of the place and the significance of V4 countries in Europe / EU, and in Japan as well.

Though there is a great interest for Europe in Japan, nevertheless there is little knowledge among Japanese students concerning the heterogeneity of European experiences and little would s/he know about the V4 countries. By this we aim to show our students that Europe is not a monolith, but a continent with numerous faces, opinions, traditions. The topics of discussion cover, the role of religion, tradition, migration, developmental policies, human rights, historical relation between V4 area and Japan, cultural exchange between Japan and V4, and comparative studies on them, etc. Attendants can learn all these issues directly from the eminent scholars of the area.

Syllabus and plan

Course consists of 15 class sessions during one semester which starts in October 2017 to February, 2018 (half a year), giving (Japanese) students 2 credits. These credits can be transferred to the overseas students’ home institutions, and how many credits can be counted by the home institutions depends on the rule the institutions apply.

1. Introduction to the V4 Course and explanation of entire framework.　
2. Effect of Brexit, EU and Japan, Guest Lecturer from UK
3. On the issues of cultural exchange between Japan and V4 countries (1)
4. V4 Countries from central European perspective
5. On the issues of cultural exchange between Japan and V4 countries (2)
6. On the issues of historical relation between V4 area and Japan (1); Kobe-Polish Relations: A History
7. On the issues of historical relation between V4 area and Japan (2).
8. On the issues of general situation surrounding the migration in V 4 and EU areas.
9. On the issues of different roles of religions in V4 and European countries.
10. Actual situation in V 4 and EU areas on the issues; reporting recent development and the analysis on it by V 4
and EU scholars; Mini-Workshop.
11. On the issues of comparative studies on V4, EU and Japan (1) .
12. On the issues of comparative studies on V4, EU and Japan (2); Mini-Workshop.
13. Further analysis and observations on the issues by Japanese and Asian scholars.
14. Reply and further analysis / observation by V 4 and EU scholars.
15. Discussions in relation to Comparative Studies on the issues; Mini-Workshop