Course Description

The topic of this semiar is “Shikohin”, which in Japanese generally refers to food, beverages and other materials which humans consume not out of nutritional purposes but rather for their flavor and/or stimulatory effects, e.g. alcoholic beverages, tobacco, coffee and tea. Such typical “Shikohin” contains psychoactive substances, i.e. ethyl alcohol in alcoholic beverages, nicotine in tobacco, and caffeine in coffee, tea, and chocolate. In this seminar you will learn the history, pharmacology, and psychology of these chemicals, as well as “addictiveness” of these mind-altering substances which are widely available and widely being used.