For the Spring 2027 intake: the SDS pre-application is open June 1 – June 30, 2026, the Chiba Tech application window runs July 14 – August 3, 2026, and results are announced on September 3, 2026. The process has six steps: online submission, faculty review, virtual interview, Chiba Tech application, research-plan development with faculty, and final result announcement.
No. SDS welcomes applicants from any background — engineering, design, philosophy, economics, art, computer science, or something else entirely. You don't need to fit neatly into a box. Our first cohort includes students from humanities, design, engineering, and policy backgrounds.
The entire program is conducted in English. Applicants should be comfortable working, writing, and presenting in English. Specific test score requirements (TOEFL, IELTS, etc.) are confirmed during the Chiba Tech application stage.
Master's program tuition is ¥1,134,500 for Year 1 and ¥922,500 for Year 2. Doctoral program and visa-related fees are confirmed with admitted students during the Chiba Tech application stage.
Scholarship opportunities are available through Chiba Tech and external sources. Details are provided to admitted students. Contact sds-admissions@chibatech.dev for the latest information.
The pre-application requires:
Antidisciplinary work doesn't belong to any existing discipline — it lives in the gaps between them. Rather than borrowing tools across departments, SDS asks students to intervene at the level of paradigms. The twelve founding orientations (Resilience over strength, Systems over objects, Emergence over authority, etc.) define this directional commitment.
The Master's is a 2-year, 30-credit program (21 required + 9 elective) culminating in a thesis — either an evidence-based product or scientific research. The PhD is a 3-year, 17-credit program (15 required + 2 elective) with a dissertation and impact-point milestones. PhD candidates typically enter after the Master's.
Yes. All courses, advising, and thesis work are conducted in English. SDS is the first English-only graduate program at Chiba Tech.
No. You don't need to speak Japanese to enroll, study, or graduate. Many students pick some up by living in Japan, but none are required to.
Master's students choose one of two paths: designing an evidence-based product that addresses a real-world problem, or pursuing scientific research. A fast-track option exists for students who earn 4 impact points (peer-reviewed publications, exhibitions, patents, or funding rounds), in which case the thesis requirement is waived but all coursework remains.
A Master of Engineering from the Chiba Institute of Technology. The degree is formally in engineering, but the program itself is deeply antidisciplinary.
SDS is based at the Henkaku Center in the Tokyo–Chiba area (2-17-1 Tsudanuma, Narashino, Chiba 275-0016). Most students live within commuting distance of central Tokyo.
The Tokyo–Chiba area has a cost of living notably lower than comparable graduate programs in New York, London, or San Francisco — without compromising on safety, food, or infrastructure. Public transit is excellent and a car is unnecessary.
Yes. A student visa in Japan allows part-time work (up to 28 hours per week during term, more during breaks) and gives you legal standing to stay in Japan throughout the program.
Deliberately small. The first cohort has 6 students from Japan, the United States, Bhutan, and India, with equal gender balance. The 1:3 faculty-to-student ratio creates the atmosphere of a research studio, not a classroom.
AI isn't permitted as a concession — it's the expected medium of work. In the Antidisciplinary Project Studio, AI collaboration is structured into every assignment and assessed alongside the science. Students develop the judgment to know when AI extends their thinking and when it lets them avoid it.
Students work with frontier AI systems (Claude, etc.) as part of their daily practice. The program emphasizes AI literacy — understanding where AI helps, where it gets in the way, and what verification work the human still owes the system.