Geography at Nagoya University

Introduction

The Department of Geography at Nagoya University is one of the leading departments in Japan in terms of research activity. The high standard of research is evident from the department's track record of nurturing top-level researchers. Graduates of the department include over 50 researchers at national and private universities.
Another feature of the department is the diversity of research areas studied. Students are able to freely choose research themes from the entire range of topics in diverse areas including human geography and physical geography (geomorphology). In addition to faculty in the Department of Geography, students are able to receive broad mentoring and supervising from instructors with a wide variety of specialties including climatology, meteorology, and hydrology who belong to the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University.

History

The Department of Geography at Nagoya University began in April 1950 as a geography course offered by the department of history in the school of literature. At the time, the campus was located on the grounds of the Nagoya Castle, and the Department of Geography was housed in the former sixth infantry regiment barracks. The building was subsequently moved to the Museum Meiji-Mura (Meiji Village) where it is being preserved.
After settling on an organization with four faculty members in the mid-1950s, the Department of Geography moved to the present Higashiyama campus in 1963, where it has continued to pursue cutting edge research and to generate a diverse range of graduates in a rich environment.
On occasion of the establishment of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies in 2001, the Department of Geography moved to the newly-built Environmental Studies Building and added three graduate faculty members, bringing the total number of faculty to seven.

Postgraduate Course

Graduate students in the Department of Geography must be admitted to the Graduate School of Environmental Studies. Admissions are held in August and January each year, so please check the Graduate School's admission information.
With regard to the research interests of graduate students, please refer to Profile of Graduate Students.

Faculty

Prof. Yasuhiro SUZUKI

Affiliation: Disaster Mitigation Research Center (Joint Member of Graduate School of Environmental Studies)
Degree: Doctor of Science (The University of Tokyo)
Study Field: Physical Geography, Tectonic Geomorphology, Disaste
URL: Yasuhiro Suzuki WEB SITE | Faculty Profile
e-mail: ysz[at]nagoya-u.jp
Profile: Although I have always been fascinated with the dynamics of active faults for the purpose of building terrain, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake also awoke me towards contributing to disaster mitigation. Many things about active faults are still unexplained. We should consider societal development in accordance with the characteristics of nature.

Prof. Makoto TAKAHASHI

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Geography (Nagoya University)
Study Field: Social Geography, Theories of Disaster and Society
URL: M. Takahashi's site | Faculty Profile
e-mail: makoto.takahashi[at]nagoya-u.jp
Profile: My main research topic is transforming interactions between society and space in natural disasters, focusing on recent catastrophes including the 2004 Sumatra, the 2008 Sichuan and the 2011 Tohoku earthquakes.

Prof. Satoshi YOKOYAMA

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Science (The University of Tsukuba)
Study Field: Cultural and Political Ecology, Rural Geography, Southeast Asian Studies
URL: Learning from the Fields | Faculty Profile
e-mail: s-yokoyama[at]nagoya-u.jp
Profile: y research interests lie in the fields of human-nature interactions, particularly in land use changes, natural resource use, livelihood changes, and indigenous eco-knowledge of mountain people. I have conducted fieldwork in mainland Southeast Asian countries for more than 20 years both in mountainous areas and in lowland areas. Recently I have interested in traditional fermented foods, especially fermented soybean (so called Natto), in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia region.

Prof. Satoshi IMAZATO

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Letters (Kyoto University)/dd>
Study Field: Cultural and Social Geography, Rural Studies
URL: Faculty Profile
e-mail: imazato.satoshi.z3[at]f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Profile: His research is broadly concerned with the cultural and social dimensions of rural areas, especially in Japan. He also focuses on geographical thought, environmental perception, folk taxonomy, minor place names, and religions of rural residents, inspired by sociology, cultural anthropology, cognitive linguistics, studies of religion, and Japanese studies in English-speaking countries.

Assoc. Prof. Masaya IGA

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Geography (Nagoya University)
Study Field: Economic Geography, Geographies of Food
URL: Faculty Profile
e-mail: iga.masaya.p0[at]f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Profile: My research interests focus on the globalization of food and its social and spatial consequences. I am particularly concerned with the ways that food supply chains are disembedded from society, space and nature, and the newly emerging food provisioning practices which have been evaluated as alternatives to industrialized and globalized food chains. I am currently undertaking research that transcends binaries like global-local, conventional-alternative and social-natural to understand food's complicated geographies.

Assoc. Prof. Hitoshi SAITO

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Science (Tokyo Metropolitan University)
Study Field: Physical Geography, Geomorphology, Geographic Information Science
URL: Hitoshi Saito Web site | Faculty Profile
e-mail: saito.hitoshi.b7[at]f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Profile: Hitoshi Saito has research interests in physical geography, particularly in landslide hazard assessment in the Asian monsoon region and assessment of permafrost degradation in polar regions using GIS, remote sensing, UAS, and SfM-MVS photogrammetry.

Asst. Prof. Yuka MATSUOKA

Affiliation: Graduate School of Environmental Studies (Undergraduate: School of Humanities)
Degree: Doctor of Letters (Nara Women's University)
Study Field: Social Geography
URL: Faculty Profile
e-mail: matsuoka.yuka.b5[at]f.mail.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Profile: My main research field is social geography. I am particularly concerned about following topics: mental health, disability and community. I have conducted research focusing on support activities for people with mental disabilities in the community.