The Conversion of Homogeneous State to Global Society: The Changes in Japan from a Higher Education Perspective

In East Asia, Japan has been well known as a homogeneous society, and it is a company-oriented country. Japanese companies became an active member in the global community in the mid-1980s, when Japan became the world's second largest economy. At that time, employees with global mindsets became necessary for Japanese companies. On this occasion, the weak points of a homogeneous society became acknowledged: fewer human resources with global mindsets were available to work for major Japanese companies. The Japanese government has had to consider how to cope with this situation. The “Plan for 100,000 Overseas Students” was one of the countermeasures introduced. After they reached the goal of this plan, they launched the “Asian Gateway” project and another government plan dealing with receiving 300,000 more international students in order to strengthen their sustained development, and increase their culture and talent pool. Furthermore, the Japanese government developed related projects through the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and reformed their visa system in order to increase the number of their higher-level bankable international students and human resources. The Japanese government, major companies and overseas students studying in Japanese universities are the main stakeholders of the conversion of Japanese society.This study is based on the latest data published by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), JSPS, and other government documents and the other prior research on this issue. The new findings can be considered to provide other countries with good examples for designing national strategies to increase the number of foreign university students.