Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University

Last Updated: 2025年08月05日

The Cultural Anthropology Course specializes in various themes and regions providing a high-quality education and research curriculum. Today’s various cultural issues are characterized by the dynamism of the conflict, division, integration, reconciliation, generation and extinction of various cultures and values under the influence of globalization. In the course, we consider methods of allowing dialogues among various cultures based on deep intercultural understanding, by viewing the world from down-to-earth research investigation field work with broad and flexible perspectives. We welcome students who wish to be internationally successful specialists and researchers and foreign students who wish to conduct high-level anthropological studies.

Students’ research themes	Master’s program: cargo cult, Kazakh identity, tourism, multicultural orientalism, post-Soviet period, postcolonial, status of women in China, Boze in Akuseki Island, local Hawaiian, Peruvian living in Japan, primitive art, kula trade , fare trade in Bangladesh, Education of Nation-State, Over Sea Korean,International marriage, Vietnamese in Japan, Cultural Heritage, World Heritage, Murti-culturalism in Japan, Nikkei in Argentine, Korean American,Hispanic, bilingualism, Chinese American, Caribbean in America, Brooklyn Carnival, Native Canadian, sustainable tourism, ethnic media, multiracial in America, ethnic identity, South Americans in Japan, Nikkei Brazilian, Nikkei Hawaiian, life history, diaspora, transnationalism, Dominican baseball migrants, Pentecostalism in Jamaica, Rastafarian, Christianity and contextualization, development and women in Mexico, participation and development Doctoral program: cultural authenticity, Aneityum of Vanuatu, historical anthropology, refugee, Karenni, homestay, the Experiment in International Living Care and Family of Korea, Social Change of Korean Village in China, Feminization of Migration, Over-Sea Chinese in Vietnam, Anthropology of Tourism on Vietnam, masculinity, gender in the Caribbean, popular music, reggae, soca, dancehall, identity politics, mixed race, ‘Hafu’, representation
Teaching staff	Kiyoshi UMEYA, Professor Subjects: Ethnology. Research fields: Social anthropology, East African ethnography, studies on witchcraft and sorcery, Japanese folk-religion, anthropology of development Yuka OISHI, Associate Professor Subjects: Social Anthropology Research fields: Ecological anthropology, environmental anthropology, global history, subsistence, material culture, Siberian ethnography, Arctic area studies Hiroki OKADA, Professor Subjects: Ethnographic Research Research fields: Societies in East Asia and Vietnam, re-organization of families and religions in the process of colonization and modernization, minorities and multiculturalism, Space Anthropology. Tsuyoshi SAITO, Professor Subjects: Cultural Anthropology. Research fields: Social anthropology, Middle Eastern ethnography, anthropological Islamic studies, Morocco Hisashi SHIMOJO, Associate Professor Subjects: Contemporary Cultural Anthropology Research fields: Historical anthropology, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian studies, water frontier, wet zomia, ethnicity, religion, hybridity, migration/refugee, war, socialism, survival

Students’ research themes

Master’s program: cargo cult, Kazakh identity, tourism, multicultural orientalism, post-Soviet period, postcolonial, status of women in China, Boze in Akuseki Island, local Hawaiian, Peruvian living in Japan, primitive art, kula trade , fare trade in Bangladesh, Education of Nation-State, Over Sea Korean,International marriage, Vietnamese in Japan, Cultural Heritage, World Heritage, Murti-culturalism in Japan, Nikkei in Argentine, Korean American,Hispanic, bilingualism, Chinese American, Caribbean in America, Brooklyn Carnival, Native Canadian, sustainable tourism, ethnic media, multiracial in America, ethnic identity, South Americans in Japan, Nikkei Brazilian, Nikkei Hawaiian, life history, diaspora, transnationalism, Dominican baseball migrants, Pentecostalism in Jamaica, Rastafarian, Christianity and contextualization, development and women in Mexico, participation and development

Doctoral program: cultural authenticity, Aneityum of Vanuatu, historical anthropology, refugee, Karenni, homestay, the Experiment in International Living Care and Family of Korea, Social Change of Korean Village in China, Feminization of Migration, Over-Sea Chinese in Vietnam, Anthropology of Tourism on Vietnam, masculinity, gender in the Caribbean, popular music, reggae, soca, dancehall, identity politics, mixed race, ‘Hafu’, representation

Teaching staff

Kiyoshi UMEYA, Professor
Subjects: Ethnology.
Research fields: Social anthropology, East African ethnography, studies on witchcraft and sorcery, Japanese folk-religion, anthropology of development

Yuka OISHI, Associate Professor
Subjects: Social Anthropology
Research fields: Ecological anthropology, environmental anthropology, global history, subsistence, material culture, Siberian ethnography, Arctic area studies

Hiroki OKADA, Professor
Subjects: Ethnographic Research
Research fields: Societies in East Asia and Vietnam, re-organization of families and religions in the process of colonization and modernization, minorities and multiculturalism, Space Anthropology.

Tsuyoshi SAITO, Professor
Subjects: Cultural Anthropology.
Research fields: Social anthropology, Middle Eastern ethnography, anthropological Islamic studies, Morocco

Hisashi SHIMOJO, Associate Professor
Subjects: Contemporary Cultural Anthropology
Research fields: Historical anthropology, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian studies, water frontier, wet zomia, ethnicity, religion, hybridity, migration/refugee, war, socialism, survival