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Academic Calendar

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The Japanese academic year consists of two semesters. The first semester (Spring) begins in early April and finishes towards the end of July. The second semester (Fall) begins in late September and ends in early February, with a winter break running from late December through early January. The academic year-end holiday starts with the conclusion of final exams in February and runs through March until the beginning of the new academic year in early April. Since there are no classes in session during the academic year-end break, Keio University Law School cannot accept exchange students in the January to April time frame.

Keio Law School recognizes that many students will want to come to Keio University Law School as exchange students during the Fall semester and will desire to return home in time for the Spring semester beginning in January at their home institutions. For this reason, most of the English language courses are scheduled to end on or before the start of the winter break in late December. The curriculum is structured so that more law courses in English are offered during the Fall semester, although there are enough courses on offer as well in the Spring semester to allow exchange students to earn a full semester's worth of credit. The availability of courses and all scheduling matters should be confirmed in advance with the International Exchange Committee.

Students with a demonstrably high level of Japanese language ability (reading, writing, listening and speaking) will be permitted to take one or more law courses in Japanese on a case-by-case basis. Many faculty members are willing to support international exchange students by providing some additional readings in English and by substituting a final written paper in lieu of having to remain in Japan in January and February in order to take regularly scheduled final exams. This must be arranged in advance between the student and lecture at the beginning of the course. Absent an advance arrangement to the contrary, students taking law courses in Japanese will be required, in principle, to follow the schedule and to meet all requirements for those courses if they desire to receive credit.

*Academic Calendar of 2024 is available here.

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