International Student Mobility to Japan: Hitting the Target, but Missing the Point

This chapter provides an overview of international student mobility to Japan over the past 40 years. It reviews internationalization policy in this period and the growth of inbound student mobility toward the government’s 300,000 students target, while offering a critical perspective on what is arguably an over-reliance on such quantitative targets for mobility. The chapter draws on existing literature on international student policy that has been published throughout the last decade and offers some novel analysis of policy trends and student recruitment patterns. The chapter then summarizes the growing literature on “critical internationalization” to show how hitting the target of 300,000 international students has not necessarily been a driver of more widespread internationalization, as was initially intended. Finally, the chapter examines preliminary research and offers early reflections on how COVID-19 affected international students bound for Japan, and considers implications for the future of student mobility in Japan and further afield.