Akira R. Takemoto, Chairman, AKP Board of Directors Whitman College, in cooperation with Amherst, Bates, Bucknell, Carleton, Colby, Connecticut, Middlebury, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Pomona, Smith, Wellesley, Wesleyan, and Williams, sponsors the Associated Kyoto Program which takes about 45 students to Japan for an academic year. Established in 1972, the AKP is a rigorous two-semester program that includes intensive Japanese language classes and a wide range of elective courses taught in English. Students are required to select two electives each semester which are taught by professors from American colleges and by local scholars. The program makes every effort to include courses in art history, economics, history, literature, political science, and religion every year. With offices and classrooms on the Doshisha University campus in Kyoto, the program also provides an opportunity for each student to live with a Japanese family and to share their lives and daily experiences.
Field trips related to courses of study are an important part of the program.
Prerequisites for this program include one year of Japanese language study and at least one area course, preferably pre-modern Japanese history.