Course model and main subject features
Course model and main subject features
We will introduce the course model and the features of the main subjects of Graduate School of International Management International Management Major.
Course model
Features of Major Subjects
Many Japanese business schools require a master's thesis to graduate, but the International Management major has eliminated the master's thesis in line with global standards and instead has established a subject called "Aoyama Action Learning," which was developed in collaboration with overseas business schools and industry. This is a practical subject that aims to solidify what students have learned and knowledge and apply it to work, as the culmination of two years of study.
| Subject Name | Features |
| Management games | In this course, students will work in groups of four or five to run a fictitious consumer goods company.
Students will participate in a business simulation game jointly with students from overseas MBA schools such as Carnegie Mellon University and experience global competition. All materials will be prepared in English and presentations will be made at the board meeting. The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive understanding of corporate functions, such as management, marketing, finance, accounting, and operations, as well as to improve problem-solving skills through practical experience with the issues that managers face (formulation of business plans, presentations and approvals at board meetings, risk management, team motivation, disclosure of information to shareholders, etc.). |
| Advanced Corporate Communications | This lecture is sponsored by J-Eurus IR Corporation.
The course is aimed at helping participants learn what is necessary to become a Corporate Communications Officer at a company (mainly listed companies) through role-playing methods. Specifically, participants will go through the following processes: 1) understanding the investment analysis methods used by securities analysts and institutional investors, 2) understanding investor relations (IR), 3) understanding corporate CSR activities, 4) understanding corporate financial policies, 5) understanding long-term measures to improve corporate value (long-term management plans) and governance systems, 6) understanding corporate information disclosure (including integrated reports and annual reports), and 7) understanding disclosure policies under soft law, before finally giving a comprehensive presentation. |
| Corporate Analysis and Fund Management Simulation I & II | It is positioned as one of the subjects that serves as a comprehensive summary of the knowledge acquired in the MBA program at this graduate school (especially in the fields of finance and accounting).
The specific content of the lectures will include creating analyst reports and simulating active management of Japanese stocks. The goal of the lectures is to improve the ability to analyze financial and corporate strategies, as well as to learn methods for evaluating corporate value. Furthermore, through the composition of a portfolio, you will learn how to select stocks, as well as the concepts of risk analysis for portfolio management and how to evaluate performance. This course is aimed not only at students who aspire to become analysts or fund managers, but also at students working in the financial industry in general, students in the finance and IR departments of companies who deal with institutional investors, and students who want to understand finance and accounting subjects through practice. |
| Business Planning | The purpose of this course is to develop the ability to start venture businesses, including intrapreneurship and social businesses, by having students work in small groups to create business plans for new businesses.
In particular, we place emphasis on developing feasible business models and building marketing strategies that can effectively acquire new customers, aiming to create businesses that place emphasis on the customer's actual situation and provide a tangible experience. A distinctive feature of this course is that it invites entrepreneurs, angels, and venture capitalists as guest speakers and provides students with practical evaluations, allowing them to create highly feasible business models and business plans. The course has two goals: - Developing venture business entrepreneurial skills by experiencing the process from coming up with a corporate philosophy and business idea to creating a business plan. - Developing the ability to develop business models and marketing strategies that will provide competitive advantage. |
| Marketing Planning Project | This consulting project uses data to uncover deep consumer insights and proposes well-supported strategies.
In this exercise, partner companies will act as problem owners, presenting practical challenges, and participants will develop and propose plans to solve those marketing challenges. This course emphasizes "data-driven decision-making" through research and data analysis. Students will design quantitative and qualitative research to understand customer needs, analyze the collected data using statistical methods, and draw conclusions. A key feature of this course is that it goes beyond simply presenting ideas, instead developing and proposing business plans that apply theory to practical problems based on scientific evidence. Another key feature is our collaboration with leading business organizations, including Japanese companies operating globally. We receive up-to-date company information as needed, experience the actual products and services firsthand, and refine our proposals. Finally, we present our proposals to the companies and receive their evaluation. Major partner companies to date: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (2026), DHC Corporation (2025), Hitachi, Ltd. (2024, 2023), etc. |
| Social Innovation | Participants will create a business plan with the goal of winning the Nikkei Social Business Contest. There are two options for the theme. Option 1 involves creating a business plan for the social innovation they wish to create themselves. Option 2 involves creating a business plan for a client of their choice (an existing NPO, company, or organization). While the boundaries between social and business are becoming lower with the advancement of SDGs, ESG, and impact investment, social business faces challenges different from traditional business. In this class, you will learn how to use systems thinking to build a strategy by grasping the essence of the problem, and how to involve multiple stakeholders to design collective impact. At the same time, you will aim to create a business model that will bring about social change by utilizing the business mind and skills acquired in the MBA program. Build Layton, who created the concept of social entrepreneurs, hopes that the resolution of social problems will progress rapidly if people with a business mind and entrepreneurial spirit participate in solving social problems. He also predicts that the division of organizations into for-profit and non-profit, and government and non-government will be reorganized in the future. We are entering an unprecedented era, and there are many issues to be resolved, such as resolving global environmental problems, developing a sustainable economy, resolving poverty and human rights issues, and maintaining and developing a peaceful and democratic society. Japan, a country that is advanced in facing these challenges, must draw up its own prescription for maintaining and developing an aging society. Creative problem-solving that is not an extension of past solutions is expected. What is needed here is a system change that understands the root cause of the problem and creates a solution, as well as a framework change that changes people's common sense. Through action learning, you will learn how to bring about system change and framework change, and build a business plan. |