The Japanese major is a four-year non-teacher-training undergraduate program, and students will be awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree upon graduation. Established in 1995, it is among the earliest Japanese majors in Zhejiang Province. In 2016, a Master’s program in Japanese Language and Literature was launched, followed by the establishment of a Master of Translation and Interpreting (MTI) program in 2019. In the same year, the major obtained the qualification to admit doctoral students, forming an integrated educational system covering undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels. In 2021, it was recognized as a national first-class undergraduate program construction point.
The current faculty of this major includes 16 Chinese teachers, 1 full-time Japanese teacher, 2 Japanese language foreign instructors, and 3 part-time Japanese experts. Among them, there is 1 doctoral supervisor and 9 master’s supervisors, 7 with senior professional titles and 11 with doctoral degrees. The proportion of teachers with senior professional titles, the age structure and the academic background structure are all reasonably balanced, and the research fields are diverse.
The major enjoys a dynamic synergy where scientific research enhances teaching, and enriches teaching. In the past three years, it has successfully undertaken five national-level social science fund projects and over 20 provincial-level research projects of philosophy and social sciences. More than 20 monographs and translated works have been published; over 100 academic papers have been published in prestigious journals including “Journal of Japanese Language Study and Research” and “Foreign Languages research”. The major has garnered 7 provincial and municipal social science awards and 7 individuals have been funded by the local cooperation projects of National Scholarship Council.
Teachers have been actively dedicating themselves to educational reform and teaching practice. Over the past three years, they have been awarded 3 projects under the Education Ministry’s Collaborative Education Program with industry, 2 Provincial Teaching Reform Projects, and have developed 1 provincial first-class course. Additionally, their efforts have been acknowledged with 1 first-place in provincial teaching achievements, 2 first-prizes in university teaching achievements, 1first-prize in the provincial teaching competition and 1 in the university’s ideological and political micro-course competition. Furthermore, 1 teacher has been recognized as a leading figure in integrating ideological and political education into curriculum in the university.
The institution has established sister-school relationships with seven Japanese universities, namely Utsunomiya University, Wakayama University, Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Showa Women’s University, and Kwansei Gakuin University. It possesses 3 overseas internship and training bases, 6 domestic internship sites, and multiple exchange-student programs, which enables all students to have the opportunity to study in Japan, indicating a high degree of internationalization. The students have won over 110 awards in competitions, such as the Han Suyin International Translation Contest, the “People’s China Cup” International Japanese Translation Contest, the “LSCAT Cup” Zhejiang Provincial Translation Contest, and the “China-Japan Friendship Cup” Japanese Essay Contest for Chinese University Students. In particular, they achieved first-place awards in the Chinese-Japanese and Japanese-Chinese language pairs at the 33rd and 35th Han Suyin International Translation Contests.
The employment rate of Japanese majors has steadily been at 100% in the past five years, and their employment units are diversified. Graduates are engaged in management, trade, translation, teaching and other jobs in government organs, enterprises and institutions, and the education system. Up to now, quite a number of alumni have become leaders or core members in their organizations.
