The purpose of this study is to depict how the public goods of internationalizing higher education in Japan, especially inbound international students, are viewed by various stakeholders based on the main findings from semi-structured interviews. The interviewees include key persons from different levels or fields in Japan: officials from MEXT (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology), national agencies in relation to international students and international cooperation, a national-level professional association of higher education research, both top-level and middle-level leaders of one research-intensive national university, academics from Humanities, Engineering, and Economics, administrators in charge of internationalization of their respective universities, and international students from diverse backgrounds. The study begins with a brief introduction to the research background, before presenting the analysis and main findings from the interviews. It concludes by arguing how the public good and its relationship to the internationalization of Japanese higher education are viewed and interpreted by different stakeholders, and offering brief implications for research and practice.

This study is part of an international joint project on the Future of Higher Education which is led by Centre for Global Higher Education.