The University of Macau is the pioneer of offering Japanese courses in the territory. Japanese has been one of the foreign languages taught as electives since the establishment of the former University of East Asia in 1981.

In 1992, the joint-major of Japanese Studies and Business Management was established with the Faculty of Business Administration. In this programme, students not only learn about Japanese management style, but also Japanese language and culture.

In September 1993, with co-operation and support from the Soka Gakkai International of Macau, the Centre for Japanese Studies was established in UM. Over the years, the Centre has organized community seminars and activities related to Japan. Until 2008 the “Japanese Language Speech Contest” was held annually.

In September 2003, a major of Japanese Studies was established, which is one of the programmes under the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Evolving from language courses to a major programme, at present a number of students are majoring in the Bachelor of Arts in Japanese Studies. Student enrolment in Japanese as an elective course is also increasing each year.