Before Applying (Application Requirements)

• • Please read the Department’s website carefully for the application procedures and admission requirements.

  • Discussing potential supervision: Unless you are progressing directly from the master’s program to the doctoral program at Hitotsubashi University under my supervision, I will need to review your academic work and discuss your proposal with you before deciding whether I would be willing to supervise your doctoral research. Preliminary discussions do not constitute a commitment to supervise, and any agreement concerning supervision remains separate from the Department’s admission decision.

  • Materials for an initial inquiry: Please email me the following materials so that I can assess your academic preparation and whether I can provide appropriate supervision:

    1. Your CV.

    2. Your academic transcripts, including graduate-level coursework.

    3. A research proposal outlining (1) your research questions and objectives, (2) the most relevant literature, (3) the originality and significance of your proposed research, (4) your proposed data and methodology, and (5) references.

    4. A brief explanation of why you would like to work with me and how your proposed research relates to my expertise.

    5. Samples of your academic work, such as your master’s thesis, published papers, discussion papers, or term papers.

  • Academic preparation: I require students in the Master’s Program of the Graduate School of Economics at Hitotsubashi University to meet the following academic criteria and applicants from other institutions to meet equivalent standards, in both cases based on graduate-level coursework.

    1. A grade of A or higher in Intermediate Microeconomics, or B or higher in Advanced Microeconomics.

    2. A grade of A or higher in Intermediate Econometrics, or B or higher in Advanced Econometrics.

    3. A grade of B or higher in Intermediate Macroeconomics, or C or higher in Advanced Macroeconomics.

  • MEXT University-Recommended Scholarship: I can consider providing a recommendation for the MEXT University-Recommended Scholarship only if your application is supported by an endorsement from a researcher with whom I already have a professional relationship. Such an endorsement does not guarantee that I will provide a recommendation.

After Admission (Dissertation Submission Requirements)

• If you intend to submit a doctoral dissertation under my primary supervision, you must satisfy all of the following requirements at the time of submission of your doctoral dissertation:

  1. Every chapter included in the dissertation must have been presented at an academic conference or seminar prior to submission. Regular seminars within your own research lab/group (e.g., weekly lab seminars, or "zemi") do not count toward this requirement. 

  2. At least one of the following conditions must also be satisfied:

     • At least one of the papers included in the dissertation has been submitted to a peer-reviewed English-language journal, has received a revise and resubmit (R&R) decision, and the revised manuscript has already been resubmitted in response to that decision. The English-language journal must be indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI).

     • At least one of the papers included in the dissertation has received a conditional acceptance or is in the final stage of revision for a peer-reviewed Japanese-language journal. The Japanese-language journal must be registered in J-STAGE.

© 2010– Shota Fujishima. All rights reserved.