Non-globalized ties between Japanese higher education and industry: crafting publicity-driven calls for domestic and foreign students with global qualities

Abstract

Addressing the root cause of Japanese higher education problems, the present literature-based study explores Japanese higher education’s power relationship with one of the most influential stakeholders, the business world. It first draws attention to the incongruity between the business enterprises’ proclaimed struggle with the securement of human resources capable of advancing overseas business and their rejection of international students deficient in Japanese(ness) qualities and employment of monolingual Japanese students. It is then argued that these conflicting discourses and practices have granted Japan’s higher education leeway to be rhetorically global but practically non-global on Japanese-dominant campuses. Moreover, their reproduction of Japanese students’ inward-looking mentality discourse is in synchronization with the implementation of internationalization programs that minimize interaction between Japanese and international students, with the former taking English as a foreign language classes and the latter placed in English-medium ones specifically designed for them. Suggestions are provided for future research that should explore how the Japanese business world’s changing performance impinges on Japanese higher education’s (non-) globalization policies, practices, and discourses centering around Japanese and international students.