Courses in the department are given by the four full-time faculty members as well as by specialists in Japanese language and literature from the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies. Other fields are covered by several part-time lecturers from other universities.

The department has traditionally emphasized the Japanese classics. Instruction offered by the department and the collec-tion at the library are particularly suited to students and scholars who wish to study classics.

The staff, students, and graduates hold an academic meeting once a year, at which students in the Doctoral program present papers.

The department publishes Kokugo Kokubun (Japanese Language and Literature), one of the oldest academic journal of our field, every month.