Graduation Research in Humanities and Social Sciences Degree Programs: Outline of a Typical Undergraduate Research Style in Japan

Abstract

Undergraduate research in Japan, called graduation research (GR), is comparable to that in other countries and is defined here as a final-year curricular activity that completes undergraduate study. This article aims to elucidate GR to contribute to the scholarship of undergraduate research from an international perspective. The main findings based on two nationwide surveys are (a) the percentage of degree programs with a compulsory course of GR is 87.8 percent in the humanities and 50.6 percent in the social sciences; (b) GR is more prevalent in national and public universities than private universities; and (c) undergraduates devote to GR an annual average of 430 hours in the humanities and 312 hours in the social sciences. These findings are interpreted in relation to national statistics of Japanese higher education.