Virtual exchange projects (VEP) are known for bringing learners together from all over the globe to develop skills and attitudes through collaborative tasks. However, the present understanding of learners' perspective transformation during a VEP remains limited. Based on a four-week VEP between students at a Japanese and Polish university, this…

This study aims to explore and compare the experiences of international academics in government-funded research institutes in Korea and Japan and focuses on their integration through primary roles and contributions, reasons to stay, and the challenges they face in their academic and daily lives. Although international academics are critical human…

The Top Global University Project, launched in 2014 and scheduled to run until 2023, is the most recent of a succession of internationalisation projects proposed by the Japanese government in an effort to foster global jinzai, i.e. global human resources (GHR), and revitalise the higher education system. Yet, the concept of GHR remains vague and…

Purpose: Global gender diversity and equality indexes have been developed to promote gender diversity and equality at the country level, but it is difficult to see how those indexes are applied to organizations on a daily basis. The purpose of this study is to examine the application of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures for…

The shortage of qualified human capital is a major impediment to development. In the field of international development cooperation, training programs (TPs) have been widely employed to enhance the capacity of workforces in developing countries. This paper investigates the conditions in which these programs can contribute not only to individual…

Japan has made developing global human resources ("gurobaru jinzai ikusei") a national priority. The government has invested billions of yen annually to double the number of Japanese students studying overseas, double the number of globally competitive Japanese universities, and improve Japanese students' English test scores. A broad,…

In 2014, 24 Type B universities were selected as part of the Top Global University Project to act as institutional role models of internationalization in Japan and as gateways for the development of global human resources, that is, globally competent human resources. The increasing pressure to internationalize, perceived as a major solution to…

Learning abroad is a primary dimension of internationalization of higher education, but little is known about the social impact of learning abroad. While a significant body of the literature in international education has examined learning abroad from the student and academic perspectives, how host communities, especially in the Indo-Pacific,…

Public teachers in Japan are subjected to a compulsory rotation system where the prefectural board of education governs their entire career paths. Past research has written of the macro- and micro-level impacts of rotation systems, including Japanese teacher rotation, but this paper, based on years of working in and observing Japanese schools, is…

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…

Recently, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has produced several internationalisation policies to develop their notion of "guroubaru-jinzai" (global human resources). However, a lack of clear direction regarding theories and approaches about how to achieve these initiatives has created a…

As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics approached (though now tentatively postponed to 2021), Japan stepped up on its nationwide "kokusaika" ("internationalization") campaign to prepare for the big moment. This frenzied internationalization movement is not a new trend for Japan, particularly in the education sector where since the 1980s,…

This report explores the ways in which human resource (HR) managers use "TOEIC"® scores to inform hiring, promotion, and training decisions in an international workplace. Two data sources were used (a) previously collected test users' testimonials that described managers' use of TOEIC scores to inform HR decisions and (b) test-use…

Purpose: This paper aims to suggest the structure of a platform for education and capacity building for Future Earth, which is an intensive program open to the eight stakeholders and which utilizes existing research programs/facilities associated with Future Earth. An intention of this paper is to facilitate a policy brief for projects associated…

Leadership research in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is a relatively new undertaking. It combines leadership concepts from school research as well as from business. There are common aspects in the leadership profession, but the context and the mission define the content of leadership tasks and responsibilities. Data in this…