This is a relatively comprehensive list of academic subjects in Japanese. Most people learn words for the basic school subjects like math and history at some point, but I’ve never found a good complete list anywhere, so I decided to make one.
The character 学 (gaku), which means “learn” or “study”, appears in many subject names. (In this use, it’s equivalent to the suffix “-logy” in English.) Longer subject names are often abbreviated by leaving off the gaku.
人文学 / Humanities (i.e. Non-sciences)
Kanji | Kana | Romaji | English | |
哲学 | てつがく | tetsugaku | philosophy | |
歴史 | れきし | rekishi | history | |
文学 | ぶんがく | bungaku | literature | |
1 | 語学 | ごがく | gogaku | language study |
1 Not to be confused with 言語学 (gengogaku) “linguistics” (the study of language in general).
社会科学 / Social Sciences
心理学 | しんりがく | shinrigaku | psychology | |
社会学 | しゃかいがく | shakaigaku | sociology | |
1 | 言語学 | げんごがく | gengogaku | linguistics |
2 | 人類学 | じんるいがく | jinruigaku | anthropology |
地理(学) | ちり(がく) | chiri(gaku) | geography | |
3 | 経済(学) | けいざい(がく) | keizai(gaku) | economics |
4 | 政治学 | せいじがく | seijigaku | political science |
1 Not to be confused with 語学 (gogaku) “language study” (learning a particular language).
2 人類 (jinrui) = mankind
3 経済 (keizai) = economy
4 政治 (seiji) = government/politics
自然科学 / Natural Sciences
1 | 生物(学) | せいぶつ(がく) | seibutsu(gaku) | biology |
2 | 化学 | かがく | kagaku | chemistry |
物理(学) | ぶつり(がく) | butsuri(gaku) | physics | |
天文(学) | てんもん(がく) | tenmon(gaku) | astronomy | |
地質(学) | ちしつ(がく) | chishitsu(gaku) | geology | |
3 | 環境科学 | かんきょうかがく | kankyou kagaku | environmental science |
1 生物 (seibutsu) = living things
2 科学, also pronounced kagaku, means “science”
3 環境 (kankyou) = environment
その他 / Other Subjects
数学 | すうがく | suugaku | mathematics | |
1 | 統計(学) | とうけい(がく) | toukei(gaku) | statistics |
工学 | こうがく | kougaku | engineering | |
医学 | いがく | igaku | medical science |
1 統計 (toukei) = statistics (the actual numbers, rather than the subject)
See Also
- Talking About School Subjects – practice with suki and kirai, comparatives, and conjunctions
Thank you so much for the effort you have put into making ths guide ,in hope for your continuing succes.