Jeremy Breaden

Global attributes or local literacy? International students in Japan’s graduate employment system

Abstract International students graduating from Japanese universities are becoming an important component of graduate recruitment strategy in globalising Japanese firms. They are praised for possessing exactly the kinds of attributes seen as lacking in their Japanese counterparts – such as intercultural communication skills, self-confidence and a competitive spirit. Their value is also emphasised in national policies addressing the human resource challenges of globalisation. Higher education policy-makers, too, are increasingly conscious of the need to connect efforts to attract international students to Japan with strategies to maximise their utility in the Japanese workforce. To succeed in the job market, however, international students are required to conform to the conventions of graduate job-hunting. Career support services offered by universities and third-party intermediaries tend to focus on bringing students into line with these conventions rather than developing alternatives thereto. This article explores this interface between policies and practices surrounding international graduate job-seekers, analysing the positions of several different stakeholders – including the job-seekers themselves – in order to develop a more critical understanding of the possible outcomes of current moves towards internationalisation of higher education and employment in Japan and the future of the graduate job-placement system itself. The article highlights a paradox whereby the ‘global’ attributes that underpin the expectations placed on international students originally are overshadowed by a concern with testing local socio-cultural literacy through the application of the conventional norms and practices of the graduate job hunt.

Internationalisation and Paternalist Micro-management in a Japanese University

How is the concept of internationalisation (kokusaika) operationalised by Japanese universities? I address this question by examining one universitys engagement with the residents of its international student accommodation facility, ‘Global House’. I argue that the distinctive combination of benevolence and authoritarianism characterising the universitys management of Global House, a combination termed ‘paternalism’ in this article, can be understood by reference to the obligations assumed by the university as part of its internationalisation agenda. International student presence must be managed strategically because such students are perceived by their universities as both assets and liabilities, and both constituents and externalities. An appreciation of these competing pressures helps to demystify paternalist approaches to international student management observed in Global House. Paternalism appears at first glance to be a dysfunction of the internationalisation process, but it is better understood as an organisational context for the performance thereof. I use this analysis to argue the need to build a stronger conception of the university as a principal protagonist in, rather than simply an object of, internationalisation. This discussion also highlights the importance of developing alternative accounts of internationalisation—ones that are focused more on contextualised descriptions than prescriptive definitions.