During the first two weeks of this summer break, 6 HSLP students and 3 TMDU graduate students gathered together to take our Contemporary Japanese Society Course. The class focused on current topics in daily life in Japan, such as gender and work-life balance, equality in education, and marginalization of those who are viewed as different from mainstream society. The students learned central concepts of the social sciences to more critically reflect on these topics, such as social norms and socialization. To end the course, students gave group presentations, which examined a quality of Japanese society through the lens of course concepts.

Although the students had to work very hard to learn a semester worth of material in this intensive course, everyone contributed enthusiastically to class discussions and put in great efforts on their group presentations. Congratulations to our students who completed this course!