A new study by Miki Shibata, professor at Hiroshima University’s Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, reveals a key paradox in Japan’s English‑medium higher education: official English instruction coexists with local peer expectations that drive classroom interactions back into Japanese.
The study was published in the International Journal of Multilingualism on July 3, 2026.
By evaluating how international students manage multilingual and multicultural settings in Japanese English‑Taught Programs (ETPs), Shibata demonstrates the impact of power dynamics, language ideologies, and individual agency on student identity. These findings offer practical insights to enhance international student support, build critical language awareness among domestic peers, and advance equitable internationalization in higher education.
This dynamic has emerged against the backdrop of a major push for higher education internationalization in Japan. Under the 300,000 International Students Plan, the government set a target of 300,000 foreign students by 2020. To achieve this goal, the government launched major initiatives, including the Global 30 Project and the Top Global University Project. As a result, international student enrollment reached 312,214 by 2019 (93 percent from Asia) ahead of schedule. By 2022, over 40 percent of Japanese universities offered undergraduate English‑medium instruction (EMI) courses, and 6 percent offered full‑degree English‑taught programs (ETPs).
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