The Department of Humanistic Informatics is the newest department of the graduate school in the sense that Susumu Hayashi became the first professor of the department in 2005 after a long vacancy in the position. It undertakes “bilateral” researches in humanity and science-technology.

Sociological and historical studies on information and communication technologies are main study fields of the department. We study the influences of technologies on societies and cultures, and vice versa. An example of studies of the latter sort is an analysis of Japanese information technology and industry in the light of sociological theories of rationality, intended to propose policies to improve Japanese software research and industry.

We also undertake scientific-technological studies of informatics guided by our humanistic studies. Examples are software for philological and historical studies and logic based on the computational learning theory.

• Humanistic Informatics Web Site (in Japanese)