The writer analyzed the qualities for interculturally competent Japanese business persons who work overseas in the previous article. This paper is to verify its validity and make more specific and multifaceted investigation into each of the requirements. The analysis of interviews supports the appropriateness of these requirements. It also shows the proper implementation of each differs depending on their roles, duties, counterparts, etc. In addition, the difference in the views of business operation between Japanese and foreigners causes various misunderstandings and missteps. It is necessary to grasp the facts of cross-cultural situations from two complementary points of view, i.e., macro-cultural features such as countries and ethnic groups, and micro features such as business culture and individual differences. In order to play an active role in the global society, Japanese should show their individualities while making use of their strengths, and contribute locally from a global standpoint.

This paper highlights the characteristics of career exploration in the first-year of Vietnamese and Nepalese students attending language schools in Japan which diverges from past research on Chinese and Korean students. Each study of this two-part investigation shares the same research questions, but differs in methodological approach. Study1, a questionnaire was conducted with first-year students. The factor analysis results suggested three factors for each group. The results from study 1 reveal that “Self-exploration” was most commonly expressed by Vietnamese students. “Searching for potential schools” and “Information gathering” were expressed more by Vietnamese students who have work experience. For Nepalese students, there was no differences in all factors regardless of work experience. Study 2 again examined the obtained scores from the questionnaire. It is clear that Vietnamese students’ “self-exploration” scored higher than other factors and Nepalese students’ factor score could not confirm any significant differences. These findings indicate that; 1) Vietnamese students with no work experience recognize they are in the initial stage of career exploration, 2) Vietnamese students with work experience recognize their career exploration is in the early stages, 3) for Nepalese students, their career exploration is fully focused on continuing their studies.

The impact of an overseas experience on student’s personal growth is significant. Teachers and staffs often wander what programs, methods and materials can be adopted in order to prepare young undergraduates to be more “globally-minded”. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the students’ learning in an overseas fieldwork program held in Kwansei Gakuin University, Center for International Education and Cooperation. Analysis was performed on reflections questionnaires filled out by the students who participated in fieldwork over the course of eleven days. Students who participated were from a diverse range of academic backgrounds. As a result, students learnt how to accept and respect other cultures and developed their interests and concerns through the process of getting in touch with both Japanese and local students. By introducing two different theoretical concepts; “Group Dynamics” and Allport’s “Contact Hypothesis”, the authors examine how learning through fieldwork influences students.

In this paper, the author explains the development processes of measurement scales applied as intercultural competence assessment tools. A questionnaire form was created, composed of 48 questionnaire entries derived from Byram’s (1997) Intercultural Communicative Competence model. Factor analysis was applied to the questionnaire results, and five factors were extracted. The factor scores obtained are considered as scale values for assessment. The scales are expected to assess the effects of study abroad programs, which are active in many higher education organizations in Japan. The effects were assessed by comparing the answers of students before and after some study abroad programs. The results showed that statistically significant differences were found among all the factors.