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Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences

2019年10月25日更新

A Science of Living that Takes a Multifaceted Approach by Integrating Arts and Sciences to Comprehensively Reexamine Problems in Body and Mind

The Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences explores humanity, lifestyles, and the environment from composite and multifaceted perspectives. It is comprised of four departments, including Nutrition and Food Science and Human-Environmental Science in the natural sciences, as well as Human Life Studies and Psychology in the humanities and social sciences, thereby offering an interdisciplinary program that transcends the boundaries of science and the humanities. In order to reconsider quality of life, various problems of the body and mind are considered from the perspective of human life, and comprehensive science is applied to problems in food science and health, humanity and the environment, human life and society, human life and culture, and mind science and culture. Furthermore, the department fosters independent women who can seek to create values and standards suited to the modern era by carefully homing in on the trends of the times and comprehensively reevaluating humans and life. The Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences provides various qualifications, including the necessary ones for obtaining a teaching license or becoming a museum curator. In 2004, the Faculty created a curriculum that covers the requirements for the examination to become a national registered dietician, and in 2013 the Faculty added a curriculum that covers the requirements for the examination to become a first-class registered architect.

History of the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences

The Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences was founded in 1992 with the reorganization of the Faculty of Home Economics (which had been established in 1950). The term “home economics” may conjure up images of household chores such as sewing, cooking, childcare, and domestic finance, which used to be taught in order to foster good wives and mothers. However, this Faculty also taught the skills necessary for women to achieve independence, such as when Ochanomizu University established the Tokyo Special Secondary School Teacher Training School Sewing Department for war widows in 1939. The transformation from Home Economics to Human Life and Environmental Sciences was a reflection of how everyday human life became closely connected to the global natural and social environments, as well as changes in the positions and roles of women in society. For this reason, the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences includes a much wider range of disciplines than the previous Faculty of Home Economics did.

However, the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences has not changed its stance of working from a comprehensive and grounded perspective that considers the meaning of a full, healthy, and humane way to live, ways to live together with people and societies with different values, balancing the richness of human life with environmental concerns, and other issues.

Themes of the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences

Although the material wealth of the modern age has enabled us to enjoy a comfortable life thanks to advances in science and technology as well as rapid economic development, at the same time there has been an upwelling of problems occurring due to dramatic changes in our natural environment and the state of society. Issues include the declining birthrate and aging population, childcare while participation in society of women rapidly increases, and nursing care for the elderly. Meanwhile, to solve these issues, topics that need to be discussed and solved include balancing of child-rearing and work, universal design in residences, and universal design clothing that is easy for the elderly to use. Problems also exist in living environments and interpersonal relationships. With respect to food, an approach based on food and nutrition sciences is necessary to deal with lifestyle-related diseases stemming from overeating or unbalanced diets.
As described above, many different themes are expected of the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences, and in addition to solutions for individual problems, the Faculty also seeks to foster a stance of working towards comprehensive and practical solutions to problems related to the environment and society from the perspectives of ordinary people.
For this reason, the Faculty has established various specialized programs, including a comprehensive interdisciplinary program that studies the lives of modern consumers.

Human Life and Environmental Sciences
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