Internationalisation of higher education in Japan

Recent policy developments and opportunities for greater cooperation with Europe

Throughout the last three decades, Japan has regarded the internationalisation of higher education as “internationalisation at home” rather than as “internationalisation abroad”. The Japanese higher education community has made particular efforts to increase the number of international students, which it considers an important indicator of the internationalisation and the attractiveness of Japanese higher education. This article discusses the internationalisation of students (inbound and outbound mobility) with a focus on the development of internationalisation policy in higher education in Japan from 1983 to 2009. It summarises the discussions on the future perspectives of the internationalisation of higher education in Japan, as well as the possible ways in which Japan and Europe can expand cooperation in this field. It argues that while developments of higher education in Europe have profound impacts on Japanese higher education, Europe and Japan could increase two-way mobility by identifying “niches” based on particular trends in student mobility, while at the same time forming an interactive policymaking partnership.