Mitsuaki Shimojo

I teach courses in the Japanese language, linguistics, and Japanese language pedagogy, and supervise graduate and undergraduate research.

Courses for 2026-27

Fall 2026

On leave

Spring 2027

LIN 404/504 Discourse-Pragmatics
JPN 402 Fourth Year-Second Semester Japanese
JPN 494 Senior Capstone Course

Course information

Courses Taught

Asian Studies

AS 101: Introduction to Asian Studies

AS 498: Senior Research in Asian Studies

AS 499: Independent Study

Japanese

JPN 101: First Year-First Semester Japanese

JPN 102: First Year-Second Semester Japanese

JPN 123: First Year Intensive Japanese

JPN 201: Second Year-First Semester Japanese

JPN 202: Second Year-Second Semester Japanese

JPN 301: Third Year-First Semester Japanese

JPN 302: Third Year-Second Semester Japanese

JPN 361: Technical Japanese I

JPN 362: Technical Japanese II

JPN 401: Fourth Year-First Semester Japanese

JPN 402: Fourth Year-Second Semester Japanese

JPN 451/551: Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language

JPN 494: Senior Capstone Course

JPN 496: Internship Practicum

JPN 498: Undergraduate Research

JPN 499: Independent Study

JPN 539: Japanese Graduate Study

JPN 620: Graduate Research

NanoJapan Beginning Japanese (in-person, online)

NanoJapan Intermediate/Advanced Technical Japanese (in-person, online)

Linguistics

JPN 411/511: Introduction to Japanese Linguistics

JPN 421/521; AS 422: Japanese Language and Culture (Sociolinguistics)

JPN 496/KOR 496: Introduction to Japanese/Korean Linguistics

LIN 207: Language, Society, and the Individual

LIN 404/504: Discourse-Pragmatics

LIN 600: Masters Project

LIN 620: Graduate Research

LIN 624: Advanced Linguistics - Information Structure

LIN 700: Dissertation Guidance

Ph.D. Dissertation Supervision

Kim, Taeho. (2008). Subject and Object Markings in Conversational Korean. University at Buffalo.

Kimura, Kazunori. (2011). The Topic Marking and Scalar Implicatures in Japanese. University at Buffalo.

Boffemmyer, Justin. (2013). Attribution and Clausal Nominalization in Japanese. University at Buffalo.

Wang, Ran. (2021). Pragmatic Functions of Numeral Classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. University at Buffalo.

Fujinaga-Gordon, Kiyono. (2021). The Synchronic and Diachronic Development of Japanese Benefactive Constructions. University at Buffalo.

Undergraduate Senior Capstone Supervision (2010-)

Richard Bowen (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Japanese onomatopoeia (2011).

Toreth Elijah Spoth (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Gender and associated stereotypes between Japan and America (2011).

Benjamin Davison (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Roles and necessity of the honorific Language in today’s Japan (2012).

Huan Zhang (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Americanized sushi in the U.S.: A Japanese point of view (2013).

Lindsey, Newton (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Haruki Murakami in translation: “Airplane: or, how he talked to himself as if reciting poetry” (2014).

Samantha Hobbs (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), Some phonological aspect of English loanwords in Japanese (2014).

Brittany Kuszio (Asian Studies B.A.), The Okinawan dialect of Japan: A sociolinguistic perspective (2014).

Jamie Webb (Asian Studies B.A.), American vs. Japanese perspective on kamikaze pilots in World War II (2017).

Partho Bhattacharya (Asian Studies B.A.), An analysis of shifting gender roles and perspectives in Japanese society through “the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” (2018).

Peter Harju (Asian Studies B.A.), Hikikomori and mental health in contemporary Japanese society (2018).

Angel Wing Yi Ko (Asian Studies B.A.), Bridge to Cantonese dim sum (2018).

Shane Murdock (Japanese Studies Special Major B.A.), On the Japanese music industry (2018).

Jean-Baptiste Turroc (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), The similarity between language spread online and language spread between regions in Japan (2018).

Aaron Stilts (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Categorization of “Aibo” in Japanese (2018)

Anthony Devlin (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), A study on the necessity of Kanji in Japanese (2018).

Junye Ma (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Pragmatic factors associated with speech style shifts among Japanese learners with different levels of proficiency (2019).

Hanluo Wang (Asian Studies B.A.), Analyzing Japan’s social issue of loneliness (2019).

Jingsen Xu (Asian Studies B.A.), "Cherries" as Dazai Osamu's final story (2019).

Carmila Stafford (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Ore or watashi: A study of first person pronoun usage in Japanese (2019).

Christian Devlin (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Analyzing lexical errors of English by Japanese natives (2019).

Andy Luo (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Sentence final particles in Japanese: Differences in usage between L1 and L2 speakers (2020).

Logan Walters (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Survey of the use of the second person pronoun jibun in the Kansai region (2021).

Kimberly Gilbert (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), L1 Japanese speakers’ habit of over-apologizing when speaking English with L1 English speakers (2022).

Alex Greer (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Japanese translation of the sitcom, How I Met Your Mother: A case study (2022).

Willow Groundwater (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Overview of the particle “-i” in Old Japanese (2022).

Ryan Tang (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Yakuwarigo (role language) in Demon Slayer (2022).

Tianyi Wu (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Classification of Japanese compounds and its correlation with comprehension by L1 Chinese (2022).

Joseph Brown (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Cross language code-switching in Japanese music (2022).

Wei Song (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), -Tteru-type expressions in Japanese: A case study from social media (2022).

Eric Alcalde (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Teachers’ speech style shifts in Japanese: A case study of classroom instruction (2023).

Daniel Gimbrone (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Matsugo: A case study of the speech of Matsuko Deluxe (2023).

Steven Winters (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), A case study in the practice of code-switching among students in Kanazawa between the Kanazawa dialect and standard Japanese (2023).

Gregory Tucci (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Some pragmatic aspects of code-switching: Use of common Japanese and Kansai dialect and politeness strategies (2023).

Andrew Othman (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Tsukkomi in Japanese manzai comedy: A comparison of Kansai and Kanto comedians (2024).

Desha Renshaw (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Smiles as politeness strategies: A comparative analysis between Japanese and American English speakers (2024).

Alec Feldstein (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Analysis on abbreviations in Japanese: A comparison between Kansai and Kanto speakers (2024).

Robert Havner (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), A case study of role language in Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) (2024).

Benjammin Parrish (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), Mismatches in translation: An analysis of Akira (2024).

Karla Allen (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), The semantics of English Pokemon name translation (2026).

Ruilin Hu (Linguistics B.A. - Japanese Language and Linguistics), A study of speech style shift in Japanese idol fan meetings (2026).