In Japan fostering intercultural understanding has become progressively more and more a pressing necessity, especially when viewed in the light of the recent changes in immigration policy. With a larger influx of immigrants in the future, Japanese social systems will have to adjust even more. At various governmental levels a more proactive stance towards multiculturalism and multilingualism has already become a debated issue. Some have even suggested that to sustain the current level of social cohesion and retain economic growth, multiculturalism should become one of the national developmental and educational priorities.

The sustainability of many Japanese institutions, including higher education, already depends on the injection of large number of foreign students. Univeristy campuses around Japan have began adapting to the changing demographic and educational environment and have in many respects become, although in varying degrees, globalized.

This process, however, has not been compounded by adequate pedagogical and teaching reform, that would address the needs of a more internationalized and global student body. It also does very little in terms of training Japanese students to become more efficient in intercultural settings, for example through a systematic development of their intercultural capabilities. Most univeristy programs still emphasize English language acquisition as the primary means to provide some form of an international education. Short term exchange programs and study abroad trips are also quite popular, but have only short term and limited effect.

In the proposed contribution, I would like to explore the efficiency of intercultural learning through different approaches that we find example in the area of international curriculum development and pedagogical reform which integrates joint learning with foreign students and culturally mixed classes. It is said that intercultural learning environments provide many of the benefits that other learning approaches miss. One of the main outcomes is for example students heightened interest in intercultural knowledge acquisition. For example, students show more interest and become more motivated to study abroad. In this regard I will present two case studies from Josai Univeristy – the Koma Shrine project and the short term intercultural training program with Dijon University in France.