Purpose

This paper reviews the national and institutional internationalization activities in Japan's higher education sector and considers the extent to which these efforts have attempted to incorporate and/or contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper was developed based on a review of available demographic data on internationalization in Japan (in both English and Japanese), a survey of recent scholarly literature on this topic and conversations with numerous faculty and staff members working on internationalization issues in a wide range of higher education institutions throughout the country.

Findings

There are substantial internationalization efforts being made at both national and institutional levels, yet scholars and practitioners of higher education question the extent to which genuine internationalization is occurring. Moreover, the metrics used to track internationalization are somewhat limited and the available data, in many cases, can be complicated to interpret. A bit of tension also exists in Japanese universities between those who support the movement to internationalize and those who see it as a passing fad, an intrusion on their academic freedom and/or as a guise for Westernization – a tension that some cite, along with language barriers and system misalignment, as a challenge to internationalization.

Originality/value

Numerous scholars discuss the internationalization of higher education in Japan. The originality of this paper is in the comparison of Japan's higher education internationalization efforts to the movement to achieve the SDGs – both in Japan and as a global effort.

中文翻译：

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日本的高等教育：国际化，可持续发展目标和生存能力

目的

本文回顾了日本高等教育部门中的国家和机构国际化活动，并考虑了这些努力在多大程度上试图纳入和/或有助于实现可持续发展目标（SDG）。

设计/方法/方法

本文是根据对日本可用的国际化人口统计数据（英语和日语）的综述，对这一主题的最新学术文献的调查以及与从事国际化问题的众多教职员工的对话而编写的。全国的高等教育机构。

发现

在国家和机构两级都在进行大量的国际化努力，但是高等教育的学者和实践者对真正的国际化的程度表示怀疑。此外，用于跟踪国际化的指标在一定程度上受到限制，并且在许多情况下，可用的数据可能难以解释。在日本大学之间，在那些支持国际化运动的人与那些认为国际化是一种过时的风尚，对他们的学术自由的侵犯和/或作为对西方化的幌子之间的人之间也存在着某种紧张关系。语言障碍和系统错位，这是对国际化的挑战。

创意/价值

许多学者讨论了日本高等教育的国际化。本文的独创性在于将日本的高等教育国际化努力与实现可持续发展目标的运动（在日本乃至全球）进行了比较。