The Faculty of Environmental Science is divided into two educational majors, each with a range of concentrations.

The Environmental Policy Major aims to produce administrators, business people, researchers, commentators, and others with outstanding skills and expertise in socioeconomic systems, along with environmental conservation and management, and human culture and civilization, so as to help enable the sustainable development of society in harmony and symbiosis with the environment. As specialized subjects, four concentrations are offered: Environmental Economics and Business, Environmental and Regional Planning, Environmental Law and Policy, and Environmental Human Society.We hope that students will concentrate on one concentration to develop specialized expertise:

■ Environmental Economics and Business Concentration

Achieving a sustainable society requires the establishment of a green economic system that balances environmental protection and economic growth. This concentration deals with the linkages between environmental issues and the economic system from policy, business, and consumer behavior perspectives.

■ Environment and Regional Planning Concentration

To develop the ability to make effective use of environmental and local resources, this concentration offers a basic grounding in areas such as regional planning, transport planning, disaster prevention, landscape planning, ecosystem services. This course also develops students’ ability to communicate well with local communities.

■ Environmental Law and Policy Concentration

To develop the ability to investigate, analyze and propose solutions to environmental issue from the viewpoints of Law and Policy Studies, this concentration offers a basic grounding in areas such as Law and Politics. This course also develops students’ ability to study cause and countermeasures on various environmental issues.

■ Environmental Human Society Concentration

In the Environmental Human Society sub-course, students study specialized fields such as sociology, social thought, and philosophy and ethics. Students will gain a multi-faceted understanding of the relationship between nature and human beings, and develop the ability to analyze various environmental problems in modern society. This course also teaches a way of thinking that values people’s lives and local perspectives.

This major aims to produce technicians, administrators, researchers and others who can engage with the environmental issues facing nature and humanity, engage in environmental conservation from the local to the global scales, and take international environmental conservation measures. As specialized subjects, four concentrations are offered: Global Environment, Biological Diversity, Biological Impact, and Environmental Technology. Students can develop specialized expertise by concentrating on one of them. Additionally, students taking this major are advised to consider carefully which concentration they should concentrate on when doing basic studies and research for graduation in this major.

■ Global Environment Concentration

To gain a broad understanding of integrated mechanisms, dynamic characteristics and interactions of life in the terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric zones around the Earth’s surface, students study the environment from the standpoint of earth sciences.

■ Biodiversity Concentration

As well as developing specialized expertise in ecology and biodiversity as a whole, students learn fundamental principles of research and study of biodiversity and its conservation by building experience in wildlife surveys.

■ Biological Impact Concentration

By gaining broad knowledge and technical expertise in methods of biological impact assessment and of environmental analysis, students develop the ability to assess a broad range of environmental changes, primarily from a biological perspective.

■ Environmental Technology Concentration

This concentration offers students a basic grounding in techniques for assessing environmental degradation and for environmental restoration; methods for producing environmentally friendly materials and for creating environmentally friendly urban areas; methods of waste disposal; and techniques for recycling useful resources. Thus, students learn practical techniques for the achievement of a recycling-oriented society.