The purpose of this study was to verify whether viewing a documentary film regarding the emotional process in dealing with cross-cultural friction significantly increased the recognition of human experience and resulted in greater cross-cultural understanding between Japanese, Israeli, and Palestinian students.

The 26-minute documentary “As Human Beings” was produced by a university student who closely covered the twenty-five-day 2nd Annual Meeting of the Japan-Israel-Palestine Joint Student Conference (2004). The documentary reveals that cross-cultural friction occurred many times throughout the conference, but in the end, the conference participants came to recognize each other as human beings and to agree to disagree about their beliefs.

The documentary was shown to 284 Japanese university students. They responded to a six-category questionnaire before and after viewing the film. The six categories were as follows: (1) Awareness of the tension between Palestine and Israel; (2) Attitudes of respect toward and understanding of cross-cultural differences and history; (3) Recognition of the importance of recognizing each other as human beings (4) Recognition of the importance of making a living under the same roof; (5) Awareness of the significance of Japan’s international contribution; and (6) Recognition of the importance of language learning. The results revealed that in the case of all six categories, the mean value significantly increased after viewing the documentary.