School of
International and Public Policy Hitotsubashi
University
Skills and knowledge required of those who work either in the public or private sector, in
Japan or internationally, in the coming century will be certainly broader, more substantive and sophisticated than at present. A challenge which any university faces is thus how to meet the ever-increasing need of providing relevant and high-quality professional education to those who will be working in a professional capacity or who are already working as such.
The Asian Public Policy Program has been established to meet this challenge head-on, building on the 130-year long tradition of Hitotsubashi
University in seeking relevance in educating young men and women for the “real world”. It offers programs in business management and finance, business law, and public policy.
The Asian Public Policy Program has unique features. We would like to make it as international as possible in its make-ups, including educational standards as well as its teaching staff. It is a program specializing in public policy with emphasis on economic policy management. With these features, it targets primarily young Asian professionals who would like to pursue economic careers in the public sector. We would also like to make it a center for research exchanges for those academic researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who are interested in
Asia’s fiscal and public policy issues.
We hope very much that this program will be able to contribute towards professional education of future Asian leaders in the economic and other public policy fields.
Asian Public Policy Program
School of
International and Public Policy
Hitotsubashi
University
Founded in 1875,Hitotsubashi
University is a national university for social sciences. It is a leading university in economics and business among Japanese universities, and, since its foundation, it has produced future industrial, financial and other leaders for the Japanese economy. Today it has four departments, four graduate schools, three professional schools and two research institutes, covering the fields of business, economics, public policy, law, social sciences, etc. It has an enrollment of over 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and a faculty and staff numbering over 600. There is a considerable international student population, accounting for close to 10 percent of total enrollment. The university’s alumni association has a strong and active network in the Japanese society, which supports students’ campus life and the career developments of its graduates.
The university’s main campus is located in Kunitachi, a western suburb of the Metropolitan Tokyo in an area specially designated as a “cultural and educational zone”. The university, with its Romanesque buildings, is an ideal environment for higher learning.
The New Campus in
Central Tokyo
The students of the Asian Public Policy Program(APPP) study in Hitotsubashi’s new Campus. It is located on a new campus in Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, an area adjacent to the Imperial Palace Ground, where the university originated 130 years ago. The new campus is a part of a new 23-storied modern building called National Center of Sciences, complete with most modern communication, library, conference, athletic and other facilities.
The Program Objective
In a developing economy as well as in a developed industrial one, the government and its public sector play an ever-increasing role in formulating and implementing policies and programs for the provision of social and welfare services for the population and of infrastructure for the economy. The government, at various levels, has also to fulfill an important function in securing resources, in the form of taxes, public debt etc., for funding its activities. These policies and programs have to be shaped and fit into a coherent whole in such a way as to achieve economic stability, development and social equity in a most efficient manner.
The government of a developing economy thus has a strong and growing need for a great number of professionals who are willing to work for the government and who have working knowledge, analytical skills and policy formulation capabilities in respect of macro-economic policy management, public finance, fiscal operations and in other public policy issues. A group of fiscal/monetary and public policy experts at staff and management levels of the government are essential to effective policy making in this respect, complementing a well functioning political decision-making process.
The educational mission of the program is in essence to meet the need for educating and training young economists by giving basic grounding in theories of modern public economics, policy analysis of fiscal/monetary and other public policy issues, and study of actual economic policy making. The mission is international in nature, and the program targets young Asians and others who are working in fiscal/monetary or other public policy areas in the government and who aspire to work as policy analysts or policy makers in these areas in future. The program will be an important stepping-stone for them to become fully-fledged fiscal or financial economists, economic planners, and policy analysts in the government as well as in international organizations.
In the years from 2000 through today, students mostly from East Asian countries and mostly from their ministries of finance, national tax agencies, planning agencies and central banks as well as other regulatory agencies, joined and completed the Master of Policy program.
The program also has an ambition in making it a center for research exchanges among Asian scholars, policy-makers and practitioners in the field of fiscal/monetary and other public policy. To this end, the program sponsors, jointly with the Public Economics Program of School of International and Public Policy, annual international symposia on select themes of contemporary interest to academics and policy makers in the public policy area. The annual symposia were held on “Asian Tax Reforms: Issues and Results” in December 1998; on “Decentralization and Economic Development in Asian Countries” in January 2000; and on “Design of Inter-governmental Transfers: Experiences of Asian Countries” in February 2001(co-sponsored by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)); on “Pension Reforms in Asian Countries” in February 2002 (co-sponsored by Japanese Supporting Committee of the International Association of Universities) ; on “Indonesia’s Decentralization Policy: Problems and Directions” in January/February 2003 (co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia); and on “Fiscal Decentralization in Asia Revisited” in February 2004 (co-sponsored by the Center of Excellence in Normative Evaluation and Social Choice of Contemporary Economic Systems, Graduate School of Economics and the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University); on “Health Insurance System in Asia” in January 2005; on “Tax Policy and Reform in Asia” in July 2005; and on “FDI and Corporate Taxation in Asia” in February 2006.
In addition, the Asian Public Policy Program has offered two executive programs for macroeconomic policymakers of Asian governments, with the funding support provided by the International Monetary Fund. The program is to provide senior officials of those governments engaged in macroeconomic policy with the opportunity to keep abreast of the latest academic thinking and research in macroeconomics and its relevance for policymaking. It also provides an opportunity for exchanging views on policy issues and experience among fellow policymakers in
Asia.
Master of Public Policy ProgramThe Curriculum
The Asian Public Policy Program covers normally a period of two academic years, beginning in October and continuing through July. The program is conducted in English, and offers a Master of Public Policy degree to those who have successfully completed the required courses and the Master’s thesis.
The curriculum consists of “two-credit courses” and “four credit ones”. A two-credit course is a semester-long course with a weekly 1.5-hour class meeting, except English Thesis Writing which is a one-year course. A four-credit course is either a semester-long course with twice-weekly 1.5-hour class meetings, or a one-year course with a weekly 1.5-hour class meeting.
For a Master’s degree, a student is required to earn the minimum of 44 credits in course work and “seminar work”. Of these 44 credits, a student is required to complete seminar work worth eight credits. Further, a special semester-long tutorial course, called “English thesis writing” course carries two credits per year.
In addition to the thesis writing (including a tutorial course providing one-on-one guidance and a course on English theses writing), the curriculum consists of courses in the following four broad areas. With his academic advisor’s advice and approval, a student will choose courses from among the “core courses” and “elective courses”, so as to fit his individual educational objectives and career goals.
Theoretical foundations:
Four core courses are offered in this group, with a view to providing students with solid grounding in economic theory of the public sector, micro-economic theory and an analytical and theoretical framework for macro-economic policy-making as well as in quantitative techniques of economic analysis. These are required courses for all the first year students, as these theoretical foundations are the basis for analysis of policy issues.
Each of these courses carries four credits.
(1) Economics of the Public Sector
(2) Micro-economics for Public Policy
(3) Macro-economics: Theory and Policy
(4) Fundamentals of Econometric Methods (one-year course)
Public Policy:
Elective courses offered in this group deal with major issues of public policy. Students will gain broad understanding of theoretical, analytical, and policy aspects of these issues so that they may apply their knowledge and analytical skills to real world problems later in their careers.
Each course carries two credits.
(1) Economic Analysis of Tax Systems
(2) Financial Programming for Macro-economic Policy Formulation
(compulsory for first year students)
(3) Fiscal Decentralization and Local Government Finance
(4) Economic Analysis of Social Policies
(5) Economic Analysis of Social Security Systems
(6) Economic Analysis of Public Investments
(7) Economics of Regulatory Policy and Public Enterprises
(8) Financial Sector Reform and Development
Tax Policy:
Tax policy is given a special emphasis among public finance-related subjects. In addition to tax-related courses included in the public policy group (above), elective courses offered in this group are designed to enable students to gain understanding of theoretical, analytical, policy and practical issues relevant to taxation in general as well as specific forms of taxation, so that they will acquire basic capability in formulating, implementing and managing taxes.
Each one of them is a two-credit elective course.
(1) Tax Policy I: Tax Policy and Systems
(2) Tax Policy II: International Taxation
(3) Field Research in Tax Administration
(to be held atNational
Tax
College, National Tax Agency.)Public Policy at Work:
Elective courses in this group are case studies of economies where public policy is “at work”. Major focus will on Asian economies, including
Japan, but more general issues such as the international economic and financial systems, and current topics (e.g. environmental taxes, the Asian crisis, etc.) are also covered.
Each course carries two credits.
(1) Japanese Fiscal and Monetary Policy
(2) Asian Economic Development
(3) Tax Policy in Asian Countries
(4) International Economy and Finance: Policy and Institutions
(5) Workshop on Current Topics (compulsory for all the students)
Seminars:
In addition to these structured courses, students are required to belong to a specific “seminar group” led by an academic advisor of the program, where the group participant pursues, under the guidance of the academic advisor, a specific topic of his interest. The Master’s thesis will be based on work done in the context of this “seminar activities”. Thus the participation in a seminar, a full year course carrying four credits, is a focal point of a student’s study and research activities at the program.
Others:
Special intensive courses on select topics (e.g. financial sector development, social security systems in Asian countries, public investment project management, etc.) are offered by visiting professors from
U.S. and other universities and other research institutions.
A two-credit course on thesis writing is offered on English thesis writing (course work plus tutorials).
Selection and Admissions
The program offers fifteen positions primarily to qualified Asian students, but a limited number of Japanese and other nationals may also be admitted. In selecting and granting admissions, the program will target those who have a few years’ full-time working experience in the economic or other public policy areas in the government.
For detailed procedures for applications, selection, and admissions, please see an application package. Applicants for JDS program should be reminded that successful candidates for JDS program must submit application and required documents, separately from JDS application, using the APPP’s application package, as required byHitotsubashi
University. (Applicants to the JDS scholarship are initially requested to submit application documents required by the JDS Program. After you join JDS selection and are selected as one of the JDS fellows, official applications and admission using “Application Package” starts.)1. Qualifications
Those who have a minimum of two years’ full-time working experience in economic or other public policy areas of government, and who meet the following qualifications:
(1) Those who have graduated from universities or colleges.(2) Those who have received a Bachelor’s degree.
(3) Those who have completed at least 16 years of education with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree from accredited universities or colleges in countries other than
Japan.
(4) Those who are residing in Japan and those who have completed at least 16 years of education by taking courses offered by accredited universities or colleges outside of
Japan through correspondence.
(5) Those who have completed at least 16 years of education outside of Japan and university’s course in educational institutions accredited by the country authorities..(6) Those who have completed special course in special training school specifically designated by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology by the date designated by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. (7) Those who are specially designated by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
(8) Those who have been at universities or colleges for more than three years in Japan, or those who have completed 15 years of education with a B.A. or B.Sc. degree outside of Japan, and those whom the Admissions Committee of School of International and Public Policy (IPP) has judged to have acquired the academic competence equivalent to those who meet the above qualifications (1) through (4).
(9) Those whom the Admissions Committee of IPP has judged to have the academic competence equivalent to those who meet the above qualifications (1) through (4) by individual admissions screening, and those whose age is over 22 years old or who will become 22 years old before October 1, 2007.(10) Those whom the Admissions Committee of IPP has, pursuant to its rules and regulations, judged to have the academic competence equivalent or above qualifications (1) through (4). 1. Application
Applications should be sent to the following address by registered mail. An applicant residing outside Japan should appoint an agent in
Japan and have him submit the application on his/her behalf:
Office of Administration
Asian Public Policy Program
School of
International and Public Policy
Hitotsubashi
University
National
Center ofSciences
Building
2-1-2 Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 101-8439
Admission Decisions:
Admission decisions will be made on the basis of the above-mentioned submissions. Interviews with individual applicants will be arranged with cooperation of JICE in the JDS applicants’ countries.
Admission decisions will be made on May 31(Thursday), 2007, for enrollment to the 2007/08 program. All applicants will be notified as soon as possible of the results of the decisions via e-mail and by post via your agent in
Japan.
Enrollment Registration:
The enrollment registration must be done between September 10 (Monday), and September 14(Friday), 2007. At the time of enrollment, the matriculation fee payment in the amount of Yen 282,000 (as of April 2006) must be made. The payment of university tuition fee in the amount of 267,900 (as of April 2006); representing one half of the annual tuition of Yen 535,800(as of April 2006); and covering the October-March term) must be made by the end of October, 2007
Recipients of the Japan-Asia IMF scholarship, JDS Scholarship and JICA Long-term Scholarship are required to consult with their respective sponsors, regarding application fee and submission of their applications.
