The Institute provides research grants to Otsuma University instructors, graduate students, and researchers. These grants are managed by our internally-developed ‘e-grant’ electronic application system.

This system is designed to promote cooperation/exchange between Otsuma University researchers, to help researchers uncover new topics of research, and support their applications for competitive external grants. We have completed over a hundred projects by researchers from different fields of study.

This support system’s goal is to stimulate and advance the education and research at Otsuma’s graduate school. This system is made possible by the support of our corporate sponsors.

This program is to help researchers at the Institute apply for competitive outside grants.

This program was relaunched as a competitive research grant system in 2014.

This program’s goal is to stimulate and advance the research activities of Otsuma’s instructors and facilitate their applications for competitive outside grants. The program was started by the Institute in 2014 and is jointly administered by Otsuma Women’s University’s General Affairs Group.

We hold a ‘grant-in-aid application seminar’ several times a year to support instructors’ applications for grants-in-aid. We also provide individual counseling with grant application specialists.

We continuously collect and post online information about outside grants available in Japan. We can alert users by e-mail when we find grant information that matches the users’ registered search criteria. In addition, we have recently begun gathering information on competitions, conferences, research trips, and employment. As of June 2014, there are more than 20,000 listings in the database.

* This system can only be accessed within Otsuma Women’s University.

International Journal of Human Culture Studies

The journal is edited and published by the Institute. We welcome submissions any time of research papers related to human life and culture.

Authors are not required to have any specific qualifications.

Papers may be submitted in various languages, there are no submission fees, and papers will be published as soon as they pass peer review.

In addition, papers will be posted to J-STAGE, allowing them to be read by a worldwide audience.

The Institute publishes e-books.

Published e-books are assigned an ISBN and are made available throughout the world via the ‘Otsuma eBook’ website.

The Institute conducts joint research with supporting member corporations. In addition, we conduct many activities to support and promote joint industry-university research, such as linking university instructors with corporations.

As a result of the Institute’s work in Thailand and Myanmar on school health improvement activities, Otsuma Women’s University served for 8 years (2003-11) as a base university in the Cooperation Bases System by MEXT . The University received top marks from the Japanese government for its activities.

Since 2010, the Institute has brought together 8 research institutions with Research Cooperation Agreements from across Asia as part of the AA (Asia-Africa) Science Platform Program (funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science).

The Institute also continues its activities with SHERNA (School Health Education Research Network in Asia), an academic network created to nurture young researchers. SHERNA is comprised of over 300 experts from Thailand, Myanmar, and Nepal in the fields of school health, environmental education, and others. The Institute conducts joint research with members, holds international seminars, and organizes mutual exchange programs for young researchers.

In Myanmar, the Institute is conducting joint academic research with 21 universities, using its research base within Yangon’s Ministry of Education . In March 2014, we invited the Director of the Department of Educational Planning and Training and the two Chief Planning Officers to the Institute.

The results of these activities are documented in academic papers and made public through the online journal, the International Journal of Human Culture Studies , edited and published by the Institute.

The Institute welcomes researchers and trainees to cultivate and support young researchers.

By becoming a researcher at the Institute, one is eligible to apply for funding through the ‘Grant-in-aid for Researchers’ program. Researchers may also apply for financial assistance for scientific research from Otsuma Women’s University.