This study focuses on the educational rights of foreign nationality and ethnic minority students. It considers examples from Japan and Thailand to clarify facts regarding educational access for such students. We administered a survey to teachers and students in Japan. We undertook a field survey and interviewed teachers and staff in nongovernmental organizations in Northern Thailand. We found more instances of informal education in Thailand, which may be an avenue for Japan as well. However, these two countries need to consider ways to protect minorities’ culture and language (macro), secure human resources, and develop curricula (micro) as future tasks.

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This study aimed to investigate what the participants who engaged in practice in an international volunteer project (IVP) learned, by using Wenger's theoretical framework of a community of practice. For this purpose, interviews with four international volunteer participants from Japan, South Korea, and Russia were analyzed. Using the grounded theory approach, the following four main categories emerged: “Activities participated in as a volunteer staff member of Kids’Village,” “Second language communication,” Interpretation of culture,” and “Formation of we’ in the IVP team.” The analysis indicated that the narratives of the participants mainly consisted of local volunteer activities. Finally, the diverse quality of participants' learning experience and their dynamic learning transformation over time were also discussed in the study.

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The main purposes of this study were to extract the characteristics of Japanese global leaders and to clarify facilitating factors in their leadership development. Eight Japanese global leaders were selected based on a nomination method and they were invited for an in-depth interview for about 90 minutes. Interview contents were qualitatively analyzed and categorized into three main domains: self-management competence, relationship building competence, and intercultural competence, along with various subordinate categories under these domains. In addition, two facilitating factors for global leadership development, flexibility and resilience, were identified. Moreover, the analysis indicated that consciously utilizing strengths as a Japanese person is an important foundation for Japanese global leaders.

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This paper examines the Communication Improvement Initiative (CII) proffered to the United States by Japanese Prime Minister Kaifu Toshiki in 1990, a time of heightened concern over relations between Japan and the United States. The CII, as formulated at the highest levels of the Japanese government, was an attempt to instill “grassroots” interchange and communication between the people of the two countries. Drawing upon governmental and other documents and building upon studies in linguistic anthropology, this paper examines the CII as what I term an “ideology of communication” and sheds light on the manner in which micro-level practices of communication between people of different countries can be framed by broader considerations of international relations and national interest.

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