



For students who would rather read comics than study, a doctorate in manga might be a good fit.

Kyoto Seika University announced last week that it would offer Japan’s first Ph.D. program in manga, the illustrated books that are drawn in a characteristic Japanese comic-book style.

The manga department will admit its first students next spring to a current grouping of 839 undergraduates and 33 at the master’s level. Of those in the master’s program, 20 are from other countries including South Korea, China, Germany and Latvia.

The university expects some non-Japanese to apply to its manga doctorate program, said Kazumasa Ikeda, a university spokesman.

While the bachelor’s and master’s programs emphasize artistic skill training and theoretical studies curriculums, the doctorate program revolves more around academic studies in the university’s hope that scholarly research will make a solid contribution to the advancement of manga studies.

— MIKI TANIKAWA