Welcome to HOSEI Global MBA Program
Educational Goal
Admission Goal
Diploma Policy
To Aspiring MBA Students,
The world of work is evolving at an unprecedented pace. AI, digital technologies, and automation are transforming organizations and reshaping industries. As these changes accelerate, the qualities that will define tomorrow’s leaders are increasingly those that machines cannot replicate, including sound judgment, creativity, collaboration, effective communication, and leadership.
As the future of work continues to evolve, building a successful career will require taking ownership of your professional development by embracing continual learning and preparing yourself for new opportunities and challenges. How can you accomplish this?
MBA education offers one powerful answer. It is more than a degree. It is an investment in your future, helping you strengthen the judgment, creativity, collaboration, effective communication, and leadership needed to thrive in a changing world. Along with greater career resilience, expanded career opportunities, and higher earning potential, MBA programs prepare graduates to create lasting value for organizations and society through innovation, sustainability, and responsible leadership.
The Global MBA Program at HOSEI University’s Business School of Innovation Management is an ideal environment to develop your career. HOSEI is one of Japan’s major universities, and one of the Tokyo-area elite private universities collectively known as MARCH. HOSEI was founded 140 years ago as a legal institute (hence its name meaning Law and Politics), rooted in French legal ideals of freedom of thought, democratic access to education, and practical knowledge as a key to individual growth. Our Business School’s mission is To foster innovation practitioners in companies, organizations, and society at large, grounded in management theory and practice, critical thinking, and effective communication. The GMBA Program has been recognized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology as a Top Global University Program
Our one-and-a-half-year English-language GMBA Program runs in parallel with the one-year and two-year Japanese MBA programs, allowing students to study in English but also to interact with Japanese MBA students, and even to take Japanese MBA courses. Japanese language study courses are also included for those who choose. (The GMBA Program is also a wise choice for Japanese students looking for an “education abroad” experience while staying at home in Japan—so-called 国内留学.)
GMBA celebrates diversity, with students hailing from Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Colombia, Ghana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe, and with a near equal gender balance. The world’s largest business education alliance, AACSB, honored our Business School of Innovation Management with the prestigious Innovations That Inspire award, acknowledging its dedication to diversity, and citing it as “a champion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in business education.”
Throughout the GMBA journey, students gain practical experience through group problem-solving internship projects with regional government organizations, non-government/non-profit organizations, and business enterprises. This project-based experiential curriculum — known as active learning — complements classroom instruction, providing a holistic educational experience. Our professors bring extensive practical business experience, fostering a relevant and up-to-date learning environment. Additionally, our flexible course schedule enables students to work part-time or full-time while pursuing their MBAs.
As you invest in your future and prepare to make a meaningful impact on society, we invite you to explore the transformative opportunities offered by the Global MBA Program at HOSEI University, here in the heart of Tokyo.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Pechter, PhD
Director, Global MBA Program
Professor, HOSEI University Business School of Innovation Management
Notes:
1. AACSB is the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
2. The author is solely responsible for the content, with AI used to assist in editing.
Key Characteristics of the GMBA Candidate
Our MBA, the Global MBA (GMBA), aims to foster the following types of people who can serve as leaders in today’s increasingly global society:
- Leaders who possess deep and thorough knowledge of Japan and Japanese business, and are able to make decisions based on this knowledge
- Leaders who are capable of strategic decision-making, taking into consideration a global perspective
- Leaders who are capable of cultivating connections throughout the world, and are masters in the communication of the vast amounts of information required of today’s global businesses
The HOSEI GMBA is ideally suited for:
- Entrepreneurial spirits who strive to start their own businesses
- Business successors who will take responsibility for family companies
- Employees of Japanese companies who will take leadership roles in other parts of Asia
- Social innovators who endeavor to work in the space between industry and government sectors
- Other business people who strive to become innovation practitioners
Educational Goal
In any economy, individuals with the skills to disrupt and innovate are in great demand. To answer this call, HOSEI University established the Business School of Innovation Management in 2004. The School awards the master’s degree, Master of Business Administration (MBA). In addition, students who opt to also join the Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) Consultant Training Program obtain the qualification of SME Consultant Qualification along with their master’s degrees.
The innovation management thread woven through both the MBA degree and the SME Consultant qualification is creative disruption: the ability to break free of the past business mindset to create new ideas and new businesses. We call a person with such skills an “innovation practitioner,” and aim to nurture such talent.
Innovation practitioners include entrepreneurs who start new businesses of course, but also those who are able to drive the transformation of existing businesses towards new opportunities and business models, and towards new markets. From this perspective, the Business School of Innovation Management aims to nurture business people with the following three competencies:
- Practical Management Competency
- Critical Analysis Competency
- Communication Competency
Our curriculum is formulated on the fact that theoretical “book-learning” alone cannot sufficiently develop innovation practitioner talent, and thus requires this learning to be supported with practical experience. For this reason, we utilize the “project method” in which students undertake their own business project assignments, and internships as well.
Starting a new business requires an understanding of past business cases and industry trends, as well how this is all playing out currently, and to incorporate all this business knowledge into the decision making process. Our curriculum is designed to help students acquire such knowledge from past business examples through the “Project-based Learning” method. Our curriculum also includes “IT literacy” which emphasizes evidence-based decision-making that integrates data management, data analytics and Information Technology.
Admission Policy
Intensifying globalization and rapidly evolving information and communications technologies are causing what many call the fourth industrial revolution. In such an environment, demands are high for individuals able to navigate this new frontier using not only the knowledge of management and IT, but who are also comfortable in the new industries that emerge as the fusion of hitherto separate industrial sectors. What is needed is the type of person we call an innovation practitioner.
Innovation practitioners are not limited to the types of people with the ability to start new businesses, but also those with the competency to pursue innovation in existing businesses, be that through reorganization of existing business models, restructuring of existing business organizations, diversification to new markets, or even societal innovations via social entrepreneurship.
Our goal is to develop talent with the above skill sets. Accordingly, our admission policy is to admit individuals with practical business experience who are interested in and passionate about the opportunity to contribute to business innovation.
Diploma Policy
The Business School of Innovation Management aims to nurture human resources capable of pursuing innovation in society or within an organization, and has developed its curriculum with this purpose in mind. Students enhance their understanding of and facility with innovation management through the acquisition of designated credits in fundamental, specialized and applied courses.
Through this approach, students earn the Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) as a result of gaining knowledge of innovation theory and its practical applications. This includes developing an ability to perform critical analysis in real-world environments, attaining proficiency in the conception of innovation strategies based on analytical assessments, achieving facility in the execution of strategies and tactics based in knowledge of innovation theory and practice, and acquiring skill in the communication of business ideas to various stakeholders.