The number of international students in Japan has increased through initiatives such as the 300,000 International Students Plan. This process has been characterized by a diversification in the student body, including an expansion of target groups and greater variety in enrollment programs and countries of origin.

　However, both policy and society at large tend to overlook this variety when considering international students. To address this situation, this paper focuses on the country of origin among the variety attributes of international students. Through counting microdata from the Lifestyle Survey of Privately Financed International Students (2019), it aims to outline the characteristics of students from various countries. In particular, it considers Japan’s expectations for international students as a future labor force and the students' perspectives on working in Japan.

　Examining the progression from initial motivation for studying in Japan to post-study intentions reveals differences in enrolment patterns and how students spend their study period, depending on whether their purpose is education-oriented —viewing study abroad as an advantageous means to enhance social status — or employment-oriented, focusing on part-time work as an opportunity to earn money. Meanwhile, the way students envision their post-graduation paths, particularly their intentions to return home, appears to be influenced more strongly by individual cultural values and sentiments than by economic factors. This analysis not only reveals the diversity of international students’ attributes and the meanings they attach to studying abroad, but also the potential for diverse life courses shaped by the experience of studying abroad. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that these characteristics can be identified based on nationality.

　This study examines the circumstances in both sending and receiving countries, and the decisions made by individuals within each country, when international students leave their home countries, secure employment in their host nation, and settle there. It focuses specifically on Chinese students coming to Japan.

　Chinese studying abroad have shifted from state-strategy-based dispatches of elites to individuals seeking career development and improved living conditions. With economic growth and the massification of higher education, children from middle-class backgrounds increasingly aspire to study abroad, choosing to relocate overseas rather than face excessive domestic competition. Overseas Chinese communities, the Northeast region, and major coastal cities with concentrated higher education institutions have become the primary sending areas. Compared to Europe and America, Japan is perceived as offering lower tuition fees and living costs, coupled with prospects for employment and settlement.

　While there is no significant increase in the number of Chinese students in Japan, an increasing number secure employment post-graduation under residency statuses for highly skilled professionals, such as the ‘Engineering, Humanities and International Services’ visa, subsequently progressing to permanent residency or naturalisation. The mainstay of Chinese visitors to Japan has shifted from technical trainees to white-collar professionals who have studied in Japan, with a strong tendency to concentrate in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

　Interview surveys indicate that while students did not necessarily intend to settle permanently in Japan at the beginning, those who have adapted to Japanese societal values, often driven by anxieties about their homeland’s competitive society, made the decision to stay. Although the possibility of returning to China for family education or nursing care remains, career aspiration and the comfort of their lives in Japan encourages settlement. Consequently, they are becoming an increasingly important component of Japanese society.

　This paper examines the phenomenon of the rapidly increasing number of Nepali international students in Japan, specifically investigating which Nepalis have come to study in Japan. It examines how they do so, focusing on the case of Beppu in Oita Prefecture. Examining the flow of migration from Nepal to Japan driven by education also aims to partially elucidate the new Asia’s academic space created by the mobilities of international students. Surveys of Nepali students enrolled in Beppu City’s higher education institutions revealed that many had already migrated several times within their home province to complete their secondary education. Furthermore, they had primarily relocated to Bagmati Province, where Kathmandu is located, to attend Japanese language schools in preparation for studying in Japan. It also became clear that many students were from rural backgrounds and received financial support from relatives living overseas, primarily in Japan. The mobilities of Nepali students studying in Beppu connects their rural hometowns with Japan, forming part of a new Asia’s space. Japan has become an accessible study destination for many Nepalis, including those from rural areas, serving as a means of social upward mobilities for Nepali youth. This movement is significantly supported by the presence of the Nepali diaspora. Furthermore, the role of educational institutions accommodating international students is crucial for enabling these students to emplace in Japanese society while avoiding linguistic and cultural friction. These factors also contribute to shaping the Asia’s academic space.

　This study examines the decision-making processes regarding study abroad and career formation among current and former Korean students who have studied at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Beppu, Japan. By analyzing these processes, the research aims to clarify their study-abroad strategies and the meanings of migration.

　Based on in-depth interviews, two insights can be derived. First, respondents’ decisions to study at APU can be understood as a form of transnational migration shaped by the rise of the value of “internationality” under globalization and the construction of linguistic, educational, and career hierarchies centered on hegemonic countries. These processes are intertwined, at multiple scales, with the demands of nation-states, regions, and regional universities, as well as with the social conditions of the sending country. In this sense, studying at APU was not merely an educational choice, but the outcome of complex, multi-scalar dynamics linking global hierarchies and local institutional strategies.

　Second, over time, the meaning of “internationality” for Korean students—and even the meaning of studying abroad itself—has shifted. For students who enrolled during the university’s early years, studying abroad functioned as a means to enhance their career value by acquiring educational credentials and qualifications valued in hegemonic countries. APU and Beppu thus served as sites for obtaining internationally recognized credentials. In contrast, more recent Korean students increasingly emphasize not only career advancement and upward social mobility but also the importance of a multicultural environment in which they can feel genuinely secure and develop a sense of attachment. For such students, APU and Beppu function as a “multicultural bubble,” offering an established environment of multicultural coexistence in which safe and equitable conditions for study and everyday life are ensured for international students.

　This study examines international student entrepreneurs in Beppu, focusing not on business potential but on how their entrepreneurial paths are embedded in their life courses and value orientations. Positioned as a hub within the Asia-Pacific mobility corridor, Beppu resembles certain Canadian regional cities where universities attract international students and foster emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems. The analysis conceptualizes these entrepreneurs as transnational and translocal actors who navigate national institutional frameworks and local conditions while linking their home countries/regions with Japan/ Beppu through their business activities.

　In Japan, policies encouraging foreign entrepreneurship in regional areas have been promoted through special economic zones and decentralization, yet actual entrepreneurial activity remains concentrated in major metropolitan areas—a pattern similar to Canada. Nevertheless, local initiatives by Oita Prefecture and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University have significantly supported student entrepreneurship in Beppu.

　Most student entrepreneurs did not initially intend to start a business upon arriving in Japan. Facing difficulties in securing suitable employment in the Japanese labor market and limited opportunities to leverage their study-abroad experience in their home countries, they turned to entrepreneurship as a way to establish their social and geographical position. Beppu’s support systems, role models, and emerging multicultural infrastructure have increased the plausibility of entrepreneurship, though their trajectories are better understood as path-dependent rather than the result of choosing the optimal option.

　Their businesses differ from growth-oriented startups; they function primarily as means of securing stability for themselves and their families. While seeking business development, they maintain a transnational and translocal orientation that connects Japan/Beppu with their home countries/regions. Rather than operating as ethnic businesses, their ventures often aim to serve as bridges between societies or address social issues. This orientation reflects how international student entrepreneurs position themselves within Beppu’s multicultural urban environment and contribute to sustaining it as active members of the community.

　This study aims to clarify the practices through which former Sri Lankan former international students pursue emplacement in a local city, Beppu, Japan, and to examine the vulnerabilities embedded in these processes. Since the 2010s, Japan’s immigration policy has increasingly shifted from the acceptance of “temporary labor” toward the promotion of “human resources premised on settlement.” However, employment opportunities for foreign residents remain limited in local cities, leading many former international students to turn to entrepreneurship as a means of remaining in Japan. Based on interview research with four Sri Lankan entrepreneurs and three related individuals in Beppu City, this study reveals that entrepreneurship functions as a strategy to circumvent restrictive employment opportunities and to enable family reunification. During the initial phase of entrepreneurship, household livelihoods are sustained by spousal labor, while, as businesses stabilize, strategies for social mobility—particularly through children’s education—are gradually developed. Nevertheless, the economic foundations of these businesses remain fragile, and business failure can directly result in the loss of residence status and the breakdown of family life. By analyzing entrepreneurship and family formation as interrelated processes, this study highlights the vulnerability of foreign entrepreneurs who are regarded as “self-reliant” yet tend to be excluded from existing support frameworks.

　This paper analyzes the actual status and construction process of support for foreign children and their parents in Beppu City, Oita Prefecture, from the perspective of “care infrastructure,” a concept derived from Anglophone geography, and presents a preliminary study on its effectiveness. The research explores how the practices enabling such support interact with various elements, including the emotions and experiences of key actors, physical tools and hubs, and the local socio-economic environment.

　The findings reveal a clear disparity between sectors. While public support is relatively established in the field of education through administrative programs and organizations like the Oita International Plaza, the daycare sector lacks a unified public framework. Support at licensed daycare centers (hoikusho) remains decentralized, relying on the discretionary resources of individual facilities. Although translation apps are widely used, interviews suggest that cultural nuances in childcare terminology limit the effectiveness of machine translation alone.

　This paper analyzes two primary practices that address needs overlooked by formal welfare. First, Daycare Center P’s initiatives are rooted in the principal’s prior experience at an unlicensed nighttime daycare center, where she witnessed the isolation of Filipino single mothers working in the local hot-spring tourism industry. This led to the creation of the “International Mothers’ Group” and the development of responsive tools, such as multilingual contact notebooks and picture cards, shaped through dialogue with parents. Second, the volunteer organization “Chikyukko” functions as a central hub. Its origins trace back to 1980s tourist guide volunteers, eventually evolving into a settled support system within the framework of “regional revitalization” and the establishment of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). Chikyukko utilizes SNS (LINE) to maintain “loose connections” and an open atmosphere.

　A key finding is the significance of the “ethics of care” within these practices. Support is not a one-way transaction but a reciprocal chain where the roles of “giver” and “receiver” are fluid. For instance, foreign parents often assist with translation, and motivations of volunteers are frequently rooted in their own past experiences of receiving kindness abroad. Furthermore, local universities like APU act as indispensable components of this care infrastructure through research, advocacy, and student participation.

　However, the current system is characterized by vulnerability. Because the hub’s stability is tied to “entrepreneurship and startup support” policies, it remains susceptible to shifts in the political environment that may prioritize economic logic over childcare needs. Moreover, disparities in support quality exist among daycare facilities. To ensure sustainability, national guidelines and proactive outreach by local administrations are essential. This study contributes to the field by elucidating the mechanisms of grassroots care through a regional context. Future research should expand the scope of actors and explore the historical influence of local volunteer-promotion policies.