In the Japanese Linguistics section, studies are conducted in contemporary Japanese linguistics, sociolinguistics and Japanese language education. Since this section’s foundation, international students have taken parts in all study areas. Virtually every day, Japanese and non-Japanese students hold lively discussions concerning Japanese language. Through such discussions, students can develop perspectives on contrastive linguistics and learn that Japanese language should be studied objectively as one instance of human languages. This section is characterized by its unbiased approach to keen exploration of the characteristics of Japanese language. KUDO, Mayumi (Ph.D.) Japanese Linguistics; Japanese Grammar and Discourse, Japanese Language Education for School Students SANADA, Shinji (Ph.D.) Sociolinguistics, Dialectology; Language in Japanese Society TOKI, Satoshi (B.A.) Phonetics and Phonology of Modern Japanese and Its Application in Teaching Japanese AOKI, Naoko (Ph.D.) Applied Linguistics; Second Language Pedagogy, Methodology of Teacher Education ISHII, Masahiko (M.Lit.) Japanese Linguistics, Mathematical Linguistics; Study on Present –day Japanese Vocabulary SHIBUYA, Katsumi (Ph.D.) Sociolinguistics; Language Variation and Historical Change