Graduate School of Health and Sports Science

Juntendo University opened its Graduate School of Physical Education in 1971, creating Japan’s first graduate school of physical education at a private university. When the Faculty of Physical Education was subsequently reorganized into the Faculty of Health and Sports Science, the graduate school was renamed the Graduate School of Health and Sports Science. In 2000, we received approval to establish a doctoral program. The graduate school today consists of a master’s program with a maximum enrollment of 61 and a doctoral program with a maximum enrollment of 10. In 2006, we began offering master’s program lectures in the evening at our Hongo-Ochanomizu Campus in Tokyo, with the aim of providing recurrent education for working members of society. Working in partnership with the Graduate School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Health Care and Nursing, we cultivate experts in health and sports science who take advantage of our distinctive features as a graduate school at a comprehensive health university. Based on Juntendo’s motto jin (benevolence) and its guiding principle of continuously moving forward, we as a graduate school conduct medical scientific research on sport and health science, and prepare graduate students to be creative and practical thinkers who can contribute fully to the formation of wholesome and cultured lives among the public. The three key pillars are research fields corresponding to the three departments of the Faculty of Health and Sports Science: sports science, sports social science, and health science. The realm of sports science makes use of existing physical education research findings and methodologies in examining the attributes of all sports, from competition at the international level to sports for health and sports that can be readily participated in and enjoyed by ordinary people, while also exploring the scientific principles that form the basis of sports coaching. Grounded in sociology and management studies, the realm of sports social science focuses on social phenomena that have a major influence on sport and society, such as the sports business and sports media, exploring the cultural and economic effects of sport and gaining an understanding of its essential social scientific value. In doing so, research findings from communication theory and organizational development theory, among others, are employed, along with the research technique of social research, which is commonly used in social science. The realm of health science seeks to advance health promotion and establish systematic methodologies, with the intention of shaping comfortable environments and forming healthy lifestyles throughout people’s lives, focusing on lifestyle phenomena associated with autonomous efforts to maintain and improve health by people of all ages and standards of health, including healthy individuals and people with disabilities. The objective of the master’s program is to cultivate personnel well-versed in the practical and theoretical grounding that will enable them to systematically apply the outcomes of learning and research concerning the scientific basis of sport, its social scientific value, and health promotion to the maintenance and improvement of human health and physical strength, and the social development of sport. The purpose of the doctoral program is to undertake research and education that contributes to the acquisition and creation of knowledge concerning the science of sport and health, with the goal of cultivating more advanced experts and coaches capable of conducting creative advanced research independently and, rather than simply focusing on specialization, applying the results to the advancement of health and sports science in order to develop more sophisticated educational programs.