This chapter aims to categorize the meaning ascribed to having international students (IS) on Japanese campuses, and to propose updated models that reflect the following points: What does their presence mean to their host institutions and host country? What does study abroad in Japan mean to the students themselves? As they have varying meanings and roles in different institutions, the inclusion of IS in a broad range of institutions, academic levels, programs, and majors will give a more representative understanding of the diverse nature of internationalization on Japanese campuses.

Introduction

The global movement of international students across borders has increased significantly over the past few decades, from 1.97 million in 1998 to 5.34 million in 2017. In Japan, as well, the flow of international students has become more evident in the higher education sector. In 2020, the total number of international students studying at Japan’s four-year universities together with those studying in Japanese language schools, popular preparatory courses for university entry, is estimated to be 312,214. Worldwide, the number of degree-seeking students studying in countries other than their own has grown from one to five million in these three decades.

While the situation for outbound Japanese students has become stagnant and the so-called “inward-looking tendency” among young people in Japan has recently emerged as a serious concern among Japanese policy makers, increasing the number of IS in Japan rather than sending Japanese students overseas has been a key focus of government initiatives for several decades. It began in 1983 with the ambitious goal of attracting 100,000 IS, a target that was reached in 2003; the next government’s goal has been to attract 300,000 IS by the year of 2020 and it has been successful in meeting the goal. Correspondingly, the Global 30 Project (G30), later the Top Global University Project (TGUP), was launched to encourage Japanese universities to become globally competitive and internationalize their campuses, with IS recruitment as a key strategy. Japan had 3.6% of the international student market in 2000, while the market share is estimated to be 6.5% in 2025. Based on these government initiatives and the demand of the global market, Japan is likely to continue with an excess of inbound IS over outbound Japanese students.