Rethinking the concept of global human resources in the Japanese higher education context

The Top Global University Project, launched in 2014 and scheduled to run until 2023, is the most recent of a succession of internationalisation projects proposed by the Japanese government in an effort to foster global jinzai, i.e. global human resources (GHR), and revitalise the higher education system. Yet, the concept of GHR remains vague and disconnected from similar concepts falling under the global competence umbrella. This article aims to address the idea of GHR in Japanese higher education through the analysis of a range of policy and promotional documents issued by the government and by Top Global universities. In addition, it will frame GHR both within and beyond Deardorff's Pyramid Model of Intercultural Competence (2006) in order to situate Japanese perceptions of GHR in the context of internationalisation. Results indicate some consensus as regards key attitudes, knowledge, and skills to be fostered in higher education students, thus enabling Japanese educational stakeholders to move towards outlining a more concrete notion of GHR. However, there remains a lack of focus as well as an emphasis on quantitative outputs that must be addressed in order for internationalisation strategies to be able to successfully foster GHR.