Introduction: A Graduate School in Business Law Catering to Working Professionals

The Hitotsubashi Business Law Department (“HBL“) was established in 2000. Initially part of the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, HBL was relocated to the Graduate School of Law in 2018.

In addition to core areas of business law (corporate law, financial law, economic law, taxation law, labour law and insolveny law), HBL offers three specialisations:

Intellectual Property Strategy (since 2000)
Global Business Law (since 2013)
Information Law (since 2023).

Students who complete one of the above three programs receive a certificate of specialisation on their testamur.

The Global Business Law program is taught exclusively in English. All other offerings are taught in Japanese.

Our Mission: Our mission is to provide an advanced legal education to practising lawyers and other legal professionals to better equip them to play an active role on the global stage.
Our Students: Our students come from diverse professional and personal backgrounds — from practising lawyers and certified legal specialists, to industry professionals in the private sector and civil servants in the public sector. Although typically in their thirties, students hail from different generations.
Our Faculty: Our faculty comprises established and experienced academic researchers as well as legal practitioners at the cutting edge of contemporary practice. Blending theory and practice, our faculty offers a high quality education in law in interactive small group learning environments.
Our Campus: Our classes are held in the Tokyo central business district near the Imperial Palace. The convenient location means students can come to classes directly from their workplaces and engage in lively class discussions with their professors and fellow students until late in the evening.

The Department’s programs qualify for government subsidies under the Specialist Education and Training Benefits Scheme.

Evening Classes to Cater for Busy Professionals: Our classes are held in the evenings, Monday to Friday, between 18:20 and 20:05 and 20:15 and 22:00 and during the day on Saturdays.
Convenient Location in Tokyo CBD: Our campus is a convenient 3-4 minute stroll from either Takebashi or Jimbocho Stations, servicing four subway lines: Tozai, Hanzomon, Toei Mita and Toei Shinjuku. It is also within walking distance of Tokyo Station. For directions, see here.

What Sets us Apart

HBL’s programs are distinguished by the following qualities:

Professional Teaching Team: Lawyers and other professionals at the cutting-edge of their fields collaborate with elite researchers to offer a preeminent learning experience in business law.
Practical Legal Education: Students can sharpen their practical skills by taking introductory and advanced courses in areas such as corporate law, economic law and intellectual property.
Diverse Student Body: Our students come from diverse professional and personal backgrounds — from practising lawyers and certified legal specialists, to industry professionals in the private sector and civil servants in the public sector. Students work in financial services, legal practice, manufacturing, journalism, education, information and communications, and the public service. Although typically in their thirties, students range in age.
Global Partnerships: Through our exchange agreements with overseas universities, we offer a Global Short-Term Exchange Program under which students may take intensive courses (1-2 weeks) at our partner universities. This program is designed to facilitate global learning opportunities for our cohort of full-time working students. For more information, see here and here
Public Seminars: We offer occasional seminars open to the public on contemporary issues of public interest. For more information, see here.
Accreditation: The Ministry of Education has accredited the Department’s business law programs under its “Brush-Up Program for Professionals” (“BU“) scheme. For more information, see here. Accreditation was granted in 2016 and took effect from 2017.
Benefits Scheme: The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has approved the business law program as qualifying for government subsidies under the Specialist Education and Training Benefits Scheme.
Child Care: To support our students and staff who have parental responsibilities, Hitotsubashi University offers subsidies for child care. For more, see here.

Teaching and Learning Policies

Award of Degree Policy

The Department of Business Law, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University (“HBL”) aims to equip private practitioners and inhouse legal specialists with an international perspective and strategic thinking skills necessary to succeed in a wide range of fields in business law. The underlying philosophy is to cultivate experts with conceptual skills, innovators with critical thinking, and leaders in politics and economics who are well-rounded, civically-minded, and public-spirited.

Based on these educational goals, HBL will award a Masters (Business Law) or Doctor of Philosophy (Business Law) to students who demonstrate the following abilities and attributes (see 1 below) according to the following evaluation criteria (see 2 below).

(1) Abilities and Attributes

Masters Program: The Masters Program aims to equip private practitioners and inhouse legal specialists with the knowledge and abilities to solve complex commercial legal issues and identify solutions to new problems that arise in the global economy. Therefore, students will be awarded a Masters (Business Law) if they can demonstrate:

a broad and deep knowledge of business law;
an international perspective; and
the ability to conduct applied research that will put knowledge into practice.

Doctoral Program: The Doctoral Program offers a distinctive research training experience compared to the tradition model, aiming to foster individuals who can contribute new scholarly ideas to the field of business law research by linking their practical experiences to the scholarly literature. We expect graduates not only to lead debates in contemporary practice, but also to advance university legal education by blending theory and practice. Therefore, students will be awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (Business Law) if they can demonstrate:

deep academic knowledge that allows them to be recognized as a leading expert in their field of practice;
the research capacity to apply theory to practice or develop new theoretical insights in business law.

(2) Evaluation Criteria

Masters Program:

To demonstrate 1 and 2 above, students must be enrolled in the prescribed number of years and complete the prescribed number of course credits;
To demonstrate 3 above, students must undertake research supervision during their studies and pass a departmental review and oral defence of their masters thesis or research paper.

Doctoral Program:

To demonstrate 4 above, students must be enrolled in the prescribed number of years and complete the prescribed number of course credits;
To demonstrate 5 above, students must undertake research supervision during their studies and pass a departmental review and oral defence of their doctoral thesis.

Curriculum Policy

Coming soon

Admissions Policy

Coming soon