Course summary

This four-year course is run jointly with the School of East Asian Studies. The Japanese side of the course combines intensive study of the Japanese language (from beginners level) with modules on Japan and East Asia. Your Linguistics modules will provide you with all the analytical tools and concepts that are essential to becoming a successful linguist. Combine the study of linguistics with intensive language training and an in depth study of Japanese society, to critically engage with this dynamic country. Develop your linguistic skills, applying your knowledge of how languages work, how they are stored in speakers' minds, and how we make use of them - providing you with the critical foundations to explore Japanese language, culture and politics. Study on one of the UK’s longest running Japanese studies programmes, with over 60 years of experience creating leaders within the field. Our award-winning teaching staff will give you the insights, language skills and disciplinary knowledge to critically appreciate Japanese society, history, politics and culture. As well as studying the phonetic scripts (Kana), picking up the 2000 Sino-Japanese characters (Kanji), you’ll spend a year studying at a Japanese university. Underpin your Japanese studies with digital skills that help to analyse language and linguistic data, and opportunities to use specialist software to analyse speech, map regional language variation, and work with numerical data. Why study this course?

• Become a global linguist - truly understand the fascinating country of Japan through the study of linguistics, language, culture and politics.

• Learn with some of the best - we’re 4th in the UK for linguistics (The Complete University Guide 2023)

• Voted number one - ranked 1st in NSS results 2023 across Asian studies in the UK, our staff are UK leaders in supporting your studies and career goals.