EMI & Globalization Trends in Japanese Higher Education

This article analyses a recent initiative of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) which aims to internationalize higher education in Japan. The large-investment project “Top Global University Project” (TGUP) has emerged to create globally oriented universities, to increase the role of foreign languages in higher education, and to foster global human resources. The TGUP identifies thirty-seven universities: thirteen as “top global universities” intended to compete in the top 100 university world rankings, and twenty-four “global traction universities” intended to lead the internationalization of higher education in Japan. Despite the substantial funding behind this initiative, little research has been conducted to evaluate the potential impact of this policy on language planning in higher education in Japan. This paper addresses this gap in its exploration of the TGUP, including key changes from previous internationalization policies. It then presents an analysis of publicly available documents regarding the policy, collected from all thirty-seven of the participant universities. Only documents in English were used for analysis, as these were released for international readership. Findings indicate a positive departure from older policy trends, and the emergence of flexible, unique forms of English language education in Japan’s universities.