Exchange in Japan: Sophia University, Tokyo

Grade & Credit Conversion Scale (PDF)

You receive resident credit for the courses you take. Your grades factor into your University of Minnesota GPA and each course appears on your transcript with an A/F grade. UofM students are required to take a minimum of 12 credits per term. Consult the Learning Abroad Center's Academic Policies page for more information.

You will enroll in either the Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA) or the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST). In addition to these, other faculties do offer lecture courses taught in English, which you are allowed to take.

Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA)

Centered around courses in Comparative Culture, International Business and Economics, and Social Studies, the broad interdisciplinary curriculum of the Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA) is designed to extend your general knowledge while developing your critical thinking ability. A wide range of courses that are focused on Japan helps you gain an understanding of both present-day Japan and its traditions in a global context.

Faculty of Science & Technology (FST)

The Faculty of Science & Technology (FST) consists of the Department of Materials & Life Sciences: Green Science Program and the Department of Engineering & Applied Sciences: Green Engineering Program. 

• The Green Science program is designed to provide a fundamental knowledge of substances, and to resolve environmental issues at the atomic and molecular levels based on green material sciences.
• The Green Engineering program is designed to provide electrical and mechanical engineering skills that will lead to the further development of energy-conservation technologies, efficient power generation, transmission and distribution.

Japanese Language Courses

The Center for Language Education and Research provides multiple tracks and levels of Japanese language courses according to your needs and linguistic backgrounds. If you wish to attend Japanese class, you can choose from a regular track or an intensive track. If you have prior Japanese study experience, you will be placed in your appropriate class level according to the result of your Japanese placement test.

• Regular Track (4 credits): The regular track offers beginning, intermediate and advanced courses, where 100-minute classes meet 4–5 times per week. This track focuses on developing communicative competence through extensive practice by integrating four skills: 1) listening, 2) speaking, 3) reading, and 4) writing.
• Intensive Track (8 credits): The intensive track, which offers four-level intensive courses at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels, is designed for students whose main purpose of coming to Japan is to mainly study Japanese. Sixteen hours of class time per week allow you to spend sufficient time to gain a high level of Japanese proficiency.

Course Restrictions

As an Exchange student, you should mainly take courses offered by your own faculties and programs. The following courses are not open to Exchagne students:

• FLA core programs, FST laboratory classes
• GPGS compulsory courses
• the foreign language courses (except Japanese language)
• seminars (except FLA courses)
• courses in Studies in Christian Humanism
• compulsory courses in General Studies:
  • “Studies in Christian Humanism: For Others, with Others”
  • “Liberal Arts of the Body”
  • “Critical Thinking & Writing”
  • “Overview of Data Science”
  • “Thinking about Issues, Perspectives and Positionality”

Searching for Courses

Courses offered at Sophia University can be found in their online course bulletins. From this page, click on either “Faculty of Liberal Arts (FLA)” or “Faculty of Science and Technology (FST)”. From there, you can select the most recent “Bulletin of Information”. For FST, choose the one that includes the word “curriculum”. In the 2025/26 FLA bulletin, the course list begins on p. 192. In the FST curriculum bulletin, the course list begins on p. 60 of the PDF (217 in the document).