Our Faculty / Staff

Today, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for more than 75% of the deaths worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases account for the most NCD deaths, or 17.5 million people annually, followed by cancers (8.2 million), respiratory diseases (4 million), and diabetes (1.5 million). Atherosclerosis, the clogging of arteries by deposits of fat and cholesterol, is a major cause of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, to reduce the modifiable risk factors and the underlying social determinants for one of the major NCDs, that is, cardiovascular disease, the Global NCD Laboratory’s primary research focus is the investigation of the epidemiology and mechanisms of atherosclerosis.
“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”    -　by Bill Gates  - 

I specialize in the field of health promotion. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health (WHO Bangkok Charter 2005). The course instruction is interactive, focusing on the individuality of students and on establishing exchange of ideas and discussion time. There are four goals set for the students of this course:
1) To understand the concepts of the course in a way that it can be globally applicable.
2) To understand and practice methods of health promotion over the entire course of one’s life.
3) To understand one’s current health status and work toward creating a healthy lifestyle.
4) To focus on risk factors as well as happiness factors and understand the primary social determinants of health.
I believe that pursuing one’s dream will determine one’s future. Your dream will create your tomorrow.

Globalization has given rise to an increase in job opportunities and simultaneously produced greater competition among job seekers for better career prospects. In my “Career Management” classes, students understand the skills and talents required in the workforce of a globalized world. They also realize the needs of the local cultures and individual organizations. Based on this, at this early phase in their life, they are able to identify their career aspirations, the job opportunities available, and work toward planning and achieving a fulfilling career.

My specialty is career design science, and I'm currently researching on “career development of expatriate in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies that have advanced into Asia”.
In particular, focusing on what is called “inner career” that is what you want to value and cherish, how to think and act in order to open up your career in a global era. I will think together with the mind.
In addition, I will delve deeper into the meaning and practicality of working, the way of thinking and behavior of the company, the image of the person I seek and recruitment activities.

I am interested in conducting studies on learner self-efficacy and self-regulation development in the five L2 language skills, including vocabulary skills. In addition to this, I have been exploring effective approaches to improving L2 oral fluency and developing good English teachers with high English proficiency, effective English teaching techniques, and a passion for teaching.
At Juntendo University, I am currently teaching Interactive International English to improve student critical thinking skills, intercultural communication skills, and academic speaking and writing skills. I plan to spend more time in the future in teaching my areas of specialization: Media English and English teacher education course.

Language and culture affects our thinking and identity at a very deep level. Research into language, culture and cognition shows us that our unconscious mind is “programmed” by the linguistic and cultural patterns we grew up with. That’s one reason that language learning can be so challenging—we must learn a new way of thinking and relating. This is also why many people get culture shock when they spend time in a foreign environment. My research focuses on understanding the deep impact of language and culture on our minds. I also develop educational materials that focus on deep learning of language and culture.

Obesity and associated lifestyle diseases are rapidly increasing all over the world. Therefore, prevention programs are required to increase the QOL of patients and decrease the costs on medical care. However, these prevention programs have not yet been established.
The Health Care Lab will collaborate with faculty of medicine and the faculty of Health & Sports Science to conduct research on lifestyle diseases to develop future health care plans. Our projects will include research on pathophysiology, epidemiology, and on developing devices for prevention of lifestyle diseases.

My research interests involve the skin immune system, with emphasis on the mechanisms of skin diseases, such as atopic dermatitis, and the role of antimicrobial agents in host defense against skin infection. I teach various subjects in the Global Health Service course and am the organizer of the seminar on Translational Research in Infection and Immunity, which discusses the role of the immune system in protecting against skin infections. Students read and debate papers related to Infection and Immunity, with emphasis on the use of antimicrobial agents as novel therapeutic targets in both healthy and diseased skin. Students also visit various pharmaceutical and health care companies and write their thesis based on their original work. The knowledge acquired during this seminar helps students to gain an in-depth understanding of global health.

The world is currently facing several global issues such as climate change, a pandemic of emerging infectious diseases, and health problems for those who have been excluded from development and society, like the poor, the minority, and the disabled. I have conducted health research and JICA projects in Thailand, Myanmar, and Bolivia to promote the health of people in developing countries.
I am in charge of lectures on “Global health in global society,” “Community heath in global society,” as well as “Japanese experiences to create healthy people in Japan.” In my seminars, students are required to learn and study interdisciplinary forms of knowledge and skills regarding development in the global community.

My expertise is International Relations/International Affairs, especially international organizations like the United Nations. My research concerns with the Congo Crisis in 1960s, in which the UN operated a peace-keeping mission amid the Cold War confrontation in Africa.
There are a number of global problems in various areas such as security, economics, global environment, development, etc. In my classes and seminars we will discuss these global problems as well as the role of international organizations in solving these problems.

Learning a language takes time and effort, but it can be a rewarding and even an enjoyable process. At FILA, we conduct classes with only few students in each class so that a student can interact effectively with other learners and with the instructors. This is not only effective, but also a lot of fun. We also provide counseling and instruction to help students find their own way of studying that is best suited for them. Our classes and the activities at the Learning Center provide students with opportunities and material to enhance their English learning. We are always there to support them in improving their learning and help them achieve their goals.

Learning French as a second foreign language, is a long span cognitive process, but it is also a chance of knowing, experiencing and building a new identity. As we say in French "science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul", educational process aims, by transmitting knowledge, to strengthen and enlarge the individuals as full human being. When I get involved in Japanese culture, I study and translate Japanese classic texts, but I also perform them to feel, deeply experience, understand and pass them on to the audience. Learning a new language is a global experience, a humanism where cognition, culture, interaction and feelings are strongly involved.

An increase in the number of unstable occupations and frequent job transitions have produced a change in the relationship between organizations and individuals. The responsibility for a career has shifted from organizations to individuals. People must design their career by themselves and cope with the uncertainties of the job. Currently, my research interests are focused on improving the counseling abilities of career practitioners, exploring counseling at workplaces, and supporting a transition from school to work.
My lectures are on topics such as basic counseling psychology, human relations within organizations, and on how to design a career.

I try to achieve the following two rather big objectives in my English education classes. I train students to not merely memorize English sentences and use them but inculcate in them an understanding of the differences between the two ways of thinking, i.e., the Japanese way and the English way. An understanding of the rather profound differences in syntax and semantics between the two languages can help them have a deeper interest and knowledge of the culture of both. For those students who wish to become English teachers in the future, I emphasize the importance of providing adequate responses to queries raised by students in class. The second is that I try to nurture in them an attitude that will value people who come from different cultures, have different values, and play different roles, by emphasizing the importance of mutual understanding through language. In my English classes for freshmen and sophomores, I emphasize the skills required to gain confidence in sending out messages in English.

I focus on school evaluation and school improvement support from the perspective of guaranteeing and improving the quality of education. In order for schools to autonomously and continuously improve educational activities and school management, it is necessary to establish an external support system based on the improvement of school evaluation and the evaluation results. Therefore, I am conducting research to clarify the school evaluation and external support procedures, with the goal of promoting internal practices and external reviews that autonomously guarantee and improve the quality of education. I also am in charge of the teacher-training course. In this course, I provide future English teachers with practical leadership skills by providing teaching opportunities that combining both theory and practice.

Japan is facing a severely declining birth rate and an advancing aging population. In such a society, diversity is increasingly becoming a keyword. My current research examines the inequalities and diversities in global societies, primarily exploring the inequalities based on race/ethnicity, gender, class, and the local community in Japan and focusing on the potential of diversity. Currently, I am interested in the application of social science, especially sociology, in social policy. In particular, I focus on the role of sociology and social research in promoting a co-existence society in Japan using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.

With a background in teaching intercultural communication in the medical field, Naoko is a translator and interpreter, educator, and researcher in the medical field. She was one among the first to introduce medical interpreting pedagogy research and has been recognized internationally in the field. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Board for Critical Link International, an international, non-profit organization committed to the advancement of the field of community interpreting. She graduated with a PhD in Health Communication in Japan and headed the project for training medical interpreters. She is currently working on a number of research projects on health communication and medical interpreting.

I currently conduct a mixed-methods research exploring the effectiveness and meaningfulness of individual writing sessions for students who learn English as an additional language. I also work on materials development, writing curriculum, needs assessment, and program evaluation. I have worked in a wide range of multi-cultural settings in Japan, Canada and the U.S. such as Japanese schools abroad; ESL programs; an Aboriginal health literacy project, Deaf schools; and on Bonin/Ogasawara islands. Using these experiences in practice, my freshman and sophomore English courses help students gain wide and deep perspectives on events occurring around their life as well as in the global arena, while also developing their interactive and collaborative skills as global citizens.

My research interests lie in health communication, specifically cancer and communication. Recent studies have shown that social relationships have an impact on health; such relationships are a product of social interaction. However, before thinking about the relationship, to what degree do we know about our mundane communication?
 
The courses for which I am responsible are: “Interpersonal & Organisational Communication”, “Intercultural Communication”, and other communication courses. Our class motto is “MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the world by starting with the world just around you (within 3.5 meters!)” Based on this motto, we are going to analyse a variety of communication thoroughly.

Language and culture are intertwined and are to be taught accordingly. In the classroom, while learning about the culture of the Spanish-speaking countries, the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are developed in a balanced way. Communication skills are developed alongside non-linguistic elements thus making it possible to bridge the cultural gap between people coming from a different background during the process of communication.
As far as my scientific research is concerned, I am working towards deeper understanding of the Spanish language, the process of second language acquisition, and the way the language system of Spanish can been efficiently taught to the native speakers of Japanese.

Translation connects people from different cultures. In the Translation Studies Seminar, we approach translation as a form of intercultural communication from various perspectives. Students conduct research on translation texts and/or translators in their own and other cultures. They learn basic translation theories from works by established researchers of Translation Studies and write a thesis based on their original research. The possible research topics in this field are translation’s role in a particular society, relationships among translation, languages and cultures, and translators as intercultural communicators. Participating in this seminar will help students gain an insight into communication between people from different cultures.

I work in developing/developed countries to improve health at the population level. My research interests include monitoring and evaluation of health services, analysis of health systems, and global health policies. Currently, I am conducting a joint research covering several countries in Southeast Asia　including Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. This research is financially supported by the Grants‐in‐aid for Scientific Research. I am also engaged in the technical cooperation project for health system strengthening in Bolivia, South America.
I give lectures on various subjects such as malaria and global infectious diseases, and the history of public and medical systems in Japan. I lead the Statistical Literacy Seminar and provide opportunities for students to collect and analyze quantitative data and discuss the results among the seminar participants.

My research interests involve health promotion and health sociology. Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health (WHO Bangkok Charter 2005).
People have their own definitions of health. It is important to provide health support closely the definition of health.
In this class, you will learn about skills and activities to improve QOL (quality of life) and well-being, not to cure or care for illness.
To focus on risk factors as well as happiness factors and understand the primary social determinants of health.

The focus of my research is discourse analysis. In particular, I study differences between Japanese and English language and how these relate to the unconscious knowledge or assumptions that speakers have concerning normative language use in particular contexts (sociocultural epistemology). Cross-linguistic studies have shown that speakers of these languages do have differing underlying assumptions concerning aspects of language use in context. To become a good user of English, learners need to become more conscious about these assumptions.The students at FILA are required to consider the gaps between English and Japanese languages and seek the most effective ways to convey what they are thinking.

I strive to educate and inspire students to explore and learn about current issues impacting our global society and global health services. In the English for Global Citizenship course, I encourage students to proactively increase their awareness of global issues and engage with others for deeper understanding. In today’s world of increasing information, I focus on practical skills such as skimming and scanning to identify main ideas and supportive details as well as critical thinking in developing one’s own ideas in spoken or written form. I support students to be better prepared for their selected area of research and to become contributing members of our global society.

True global citizens should be capable of more than just language use. To become one, the basis to see other cultures and languages is necessary, that is, to have and use knowledge of our own country and culture. This basis helps us deepen intercultural understanding and language learning as well. However, Japanese are seldom proud of themselves, especially when using other languages, which is so unlike global citizens. To be internationally proud users of other languages, we Japanese need to be aware of our characteristics and appreciate them. When we get lost we can always come back to where we started.

The focus of my research is on language testing, specifically on the TOEFL®Test. The TOEFL® governing body, ETS introduced TOEFLPBT® in 1964, TOEFLCBT® in 1998, and TOEFLiBT® in 2006. As a TOEFL® researcher and an instructor, I’ve been conducting research of the washback effect on instructors and test takers caused by the resurgence of TOEFL® as a standard measuring tool. Many students I have taught have achieved improvement in TOEFL® scores in the past decades. I’d like to make the beauty and the excellence of TOEFL® known to this department, too. Through the study of TOEFL®, I’m sure the students in FILA will have a brilliant future ahead of them.

English proficiency is essential for active participation in a global society. The aim of my research, as well as my educational philosophy, is to provide students with tools to work actively in a multicultural environment. In my classes, students not only focus on fundamentals such as grammar and vocabulary, but also utilize strategies to more effectively discuss and present their personal ideas and opinions. This also helps to develop critical thinking skills. I hope that this approach leads students to continue their interest in English and culture even after graduation.

Language learning is a challenging, yet ultimately very rewarding, process. As a teacher, it is my job to assist learners with their language learning by carefully applying teaching and learning principles based on theory and research in my English classes. In the Faculty of International Liberal Arts students work together within a friendly, cooperative class atmosphere and are provided with a wide range of learning opportunities to support them as they continue on this journey.

My research interest includes second and foreign language teaching, assessment, and curriculum development. I am also interested in sociolinguistics, and I have conducted research on world Englishes and ownership of English, in particular. Since there are varieties of English around the world, I want students as learners of English to be familiarized with many varieties through exposure to them in order to communicate well with English users from different linguistic backgrounds. In FILA English courses, I try to provide a good learning opportunity for students to acquire English, enhance intellectual curiosity, and respect cultural diversity through collaborative work as well as active interactions.

Studying language and learning about different cultures is a great way to learn about the world and develop your own identity. In our English classes at Juntendo students are able to think about their own culture, while deepening their understanding and forming knowledge of other cultures. English classes in FILA are small and students are able to actively participate, become more autonomous learners, build on critical thinking skills, form lifelong friendships and gain confidence. I believe that learning another language should be enjoyable and I try to make my classes as much fun as possible.

Learning a foreign language is not an easy task, it requires a lot of effort and dedication; It is necessary to fall, to get up and to keep going on. Therefore, little by little we lose the motivation and excitement of the first day of class. One of the objectives of my classes is to ensure that first spark is never going to be lost. I want students to keep learning in a fun and enriching way, about the language, about its culture, about its differences and its nuances. For me there is no greater satisfaction than to hear a student say: What fun is Spanish!

In our classes at Juntendo University we realize that we are instructing our students for their future. Nowadays knowing several languages gives you the opportunity to become almost everything you want to be wherever you want to be.We teach them and share with them the culture of all the Spanish speaking countries, and we enjoy together all the learning process. A class must be a place where they can learn in a constructive and a conscious way, but it must be also an interesting and fun experience.

In my English classes I use a variety of effective teaching methods to enhance the students’ abilities in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, as well as improve their critical thinking skills. As a teacher, my main interest lies in how to most effectively teach reading to learners of English as it is my belief that reading is the most important skill for Japanese learners to develop. Over the course of my career I have devised a reading method known as the “Total Reading Method”, which I hope to share with my learners in the Faculty of International Liberal Arts.