This course consists of 13 class sessions of 100 minutes each. As part of the class 3 field trips related to Anime and Japanese culture will be included, which will total 30 contact hours. No credits are awarded for this program from Nanzan, but the students who attend all classes will be given a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the program. All course materials will be provided for the students when they arrive in Japan.

During this three week program, Nanzan will organize a total of three field trips that are part of the course. The full day trips include visits to Ghibli Park at Studio Ghibli (Japan's  best anime production company), Kyoto (Japan's iconic old historic capital), and Hida and Takayama (famous setting for nostalgic charm of old Japan). Some of other excursions are as follows:

• Sightseeing in Tokoname (appeared in Anime "Nakitai Watashi wa Neko wo Kaburu")
• Raku Glass Works
• Touring though a traditional dyeing art "Shibori" museum
• Kuno Studio
• Sightseeing in Arimatsu Old Town
• Visits to the Hida-Furukawa Station, Kita-Wakamiya Shrine, and Hida City Library (all appeared in Anime "Kimi no Na wa"
• Hida-Furukawa Festival Museum
• Sightseeing in Hida-Takayama (famous for old town, traditional culture, and beautiful nature)
• Sightseeing at the world renowned cultural capital of Kyoto

There is also time built into the program schedule to allow for free-time to explore the rest of Nagoya or other surrounding cities and towns. Destinations such as Nara, Osaka, Kobe, and Tokyo are all easy day trips via bullet train. There are also plenty of beautiful sites to see in Nagoya and the surrounding area.

• Open to undergraduate and graduate students
• Must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher
• Must be currently enrolled (graduated seniors are not eligible)
• Strong academic performance

Please note this program is limited to only 20 student participants for all of Nanzan's exchange partners.

Early February: Application opened 

March/April: Participation confirmation and travel information released

Third week of June: Arrival in Japan

Jun/July : Orientation Day followed by Classes and Field Trips

Middle of July: Departure from Japan

In this course, students will investigate how Japanese anime and popular culture illustrate the society and the culture by critically analyzing various forms of texts related to the topics. Throughout the course period, students will also explore how anime and pop culture grew inside and outside of Japan, and what made people attracted to them. Students will make several field trips to the places where related to the course topics as a group. Topics include; history, pop-culture tourism, Hayao Miyazaki and religions, Japanese history in Anime, girls power and Japanese society, minorities, Anime produced outside of Japan. Anime produced outside of Japan. Because this course is based on group and class discussions, the students are expected to actively participate in those discussions after completing assigned reading for each class. Student will give final presentations at the end of the program.

The course lecture topics are as follows:

• Religions and anime
• Why is anime so popular?
• History of anime
• Anime genre and industry
• Girls' power and Japanese society
• Pop-culture tourism
• Diversity in anime
• Otaku and fandom
• Japanese language in anime
• Anime outside of Japan
• Beyond Ghibli - future of anime

While Nanzan does not offer credit for this program, on a case by case basis, a petition could be made for Nazareth to award 3 credits as AVCD.450: Independent Study in Japanese Anime.

Confirmed participants will receive an email with their acceptance letter with an invoice to pay the following program fee to Nanzan University directly. This payment will be due at the end of April.

Program fees are to be determined for 2025. 

This program fee includes the following:

• 19 hotel nights at the Toyoko Inn Kanayama (breakfast included)
• Inbound travel insurance
• a rented wi-fi router
• transportation to and from all field trips (meals and entrance fees not included)
• Course materials
• Access to all of Nanzan University campus amenities

The following are not included in the program fee and are the responsibility of the student participant:

• Round-trip airfare
• Daily lunch and dinner
• Personal meals on days of field trip
• City transport on days other than field trips
• Personal travel and souvenirs

This program is SPARK eligible for qualified freshman, sophomore, and transfer students. If you are not SPARK eligible, but interested in other funding opportunities for this program, please reach out to the Center for International Education directly.