The Department of Japanese originated from Sanjiang Normal Institute in 1902. Reestablished in 1994, the Department began to recruit three-year undergraduates of business Japanese in September of the year. The Department resumed its four-year Japanese language undergraduate program in 1999 and launched its master’s program of Japanese Language and Literature in September 2003. In 2020, as "Foreign Languages and Literature" became a first-level discipline authorized to confer Ph.D degrees, the Department of Japanese began to recruit students for Ph.D in Japanese Language and Literature. In September 2021, the Department began to recruit candidates for Master of Translation and Interpreting in the field of translation. In the same year, the Department of Japanese was named national first-class undergraduate major construction center. In 2023, the "Japanese + Electronic Science and Technology" dual bachelor's degree program was approved, and student recruitment began in September, witnessing one of the first "Japanese + engineering " joint training programs in China. At present the Department of Japanese has 12 faculty members，including 3 professors, 6 associate professors, 3 Ph.D supervisors and 5 M.A. supervisors. All faculty members have overseas qualifications or long-term overseas study experience. In the past 5 years, the faculty members have won 2 projects of the National Social Science Fund, 1 project of the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund and 5 projects at the levels of provinces or ministries., and published more than 30 high-quality papers in top academic journals such as SSCI、SCI、CSSCI, as well as more than 10 monographs and translations . The Department of Japanese recruits about 40 undergraduates, 12 M.A. candidates and 3 Ph.D candidates every year.
The Department of Japanese attaches great importance to the training of internationally competent talents and actively develops international education programs.. The Department has been working with famous Japanese universities such as Osaka University, Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, Hiroshima University, Waseda University, Aichi University, Aichi Institute of Technology and Komatsu University on many joint training programs, e.g. the "3+2","3+1"and" 3.5+0.5" programs. Through these programs, the Department has provided 80% of undergraduate students and 100% of graduates students with opportunities to study in Japan. Furthermore, through programs such as summer schools, the Department of Japanese invites famous professors and experts around the world to give courses or deliver lectures to the students on a regular basis. Famous scholars such as Chizuko Ueno and Yoichi Komori came to give lectures, which were widely acclaimed. In addition, the Department of Japanese has been giving online courses together with Osaka University and Aichi University, creating a new type of class attended by Chinese and Japanese professors and students, yielding excellent teaching results. The Department's students, with high academic competence, have won prizes in many national and provincial foreign language proficiency contests, and many of them have got full marks in the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (N1) . The Department also emphasizes the cultivation of students' scientific research ability. In the past 5 years, students have gained more than 10 national and provincial SRTP projects, and published nearly 30 academic papers as first author. The graduates from the Department are very popular in the job market due to their high Japanese proficiency and calibre, they are well-received by government offices such as foreign affairs departments and the Customs, as well as by banks, accounting firms, law firms, well-known companies, etc.
