Internationalization in Japanese Universities

In their chapter Internationalization of Japanese universities: Current status                                     and future directions, Kudo et.al (2011) examine the current status of the internationalization of Japanese universities by focusing on the multiplicity of its connotations and practices from a Japanese socio-historical perspective. According to authors Japanese universities are in severe competition and many universities cannot meet the admission quota and may face with bankruptcy and closedown. In order to improve quality of HE in research and teaching the government undertake initiatives, some of them are the Centers of Learning and Excellence Programs in 2002 - 2007, the establishment of national university corporations in 2004, the Strategic Fund for Establishing International Headquarters in Universities in 2005 and the selection of key universities for internationalization (‘Global 30’).

First, the authors conceptualize university internationalization and introduce emerging phenomena in the internationalization of Japanese universities. According to authors the issues of internationalization have almost been discussed in relation to the national identity in Japan because universities made impact to nation building. Japan began its national modernization and westernization project with the establishment the University of Tokyo in 1877 and followed by importing Western knowledge through visiting scholars and books and by sending students to Europe and USA. Authors suggest four emerging phenomena in the internationalization of Japanese universities, these are: 1) Azianization, 2) the promotion of international student exchange from the perspective of Japan’s economic and educational developments, 3) the integration of international/transnational dimensions into curricula and 4) the steepening of hierarchy with diversification, or “stratified diversification”.

Then, the chapter illustrates ‘stratified diversification’ of university internationalization, by presenting a categorical model of five distinctive approaches of Japanese universities toward internationalization (global, innovative, ad hoc, pseudo-international, and no-international). The model highlights the multiple yet stratified modes of internationalization practices, with each approach based upon different rationales and facing different problems and issues at stake. Finally, the chapter concludes with a brief discussion on the implications of the model for future research and development of Japanese higher education.

Interestingly, authors’ analysis showed the existence of “winner-takes-all situations” where such elite universities are at an advantage in international engagement. Those universities can stay aside from nationalism and become independent because of their interconnection with foreign elite universities and abundance in human and financial capitals.

Personally, it was very interesting to know about internationalization process in Japan. The process of internationalization is complex itself. Taking into account some challenges, I think for Japanese universities this process is given not so easy. One of those challenges is that Japan was close country and it was difficult to entry the country. Also, from the one hand Japan is very nationalistic country attempting to “maintain its culture and tradition, internalize Japaneseness or Japanese identity in people’s mind” (Kudo, et.al, 2011, p. 345) and cosmopolitanism which aims to “transcend national identity as such” (Kudo, et.al, 2011, p. 345) from another hand. This dichotomy complicates the process. Another challenge is greying population of Japan, it faces with big issue in demographic process, particularly in decreasing population due to late marriage, tendency not having children because of high expenses and the number of old population is higher than youth. Further, the disaster that happened in Japan in 2011, the earthquake damaged many regions and led to outflow of current international students and future students who are afraid of natural disasters in Japan.  However, Japanese government is active in the process of globalization, the example of this include programs, new plans (for 300,000 international students), ‘Global 30’ program, partnerships and others.

In conclusion, I agree with the opinion that it is impossible to form an "internationally-oriented" environment by only declaring the policy of increasing the number of foreign students and creating departments of international relations within the universities, increasing the number of student exchange programs. The success of the policy of internationalization in education is necessary to develop each individual's values ​​and skills proportionate with a sense of himself as a citizen of the world community.

References

Kudo, K., & Hashimoto, H. (2011). Internationalization of Japanese universities: Current status                                     and future directions. In Higher education in the Asia-Pacific (pp. 343-359). Springer Netherlands.