Seoul National University says that it will open a Japanese studies course for the first time in its 65-year history.

The school announced Friday that it reached a decision in a meeting of deans to open a department studying the languages and cultures of East Asian countries next year.

The new department will offer courses on Japan, India, Southeast Asia and West Asia. The university added it is only accepting ten students each for the courses on Japan and West Asia.

Seoul National University was founded in 1946 and it has never offered a Japanese studies course taking into consideration anti-Japanese sentiment widespread among Korean people, which is rooted in Japan’s colonial ruling of the Korean Peninsula in the early 1900s.