As universities struggle to enroll more foreigners and internationalize their student bodies, some are raising concerns about a growing number of Japanese who are choosing to stay closer to home rather than studying abroad and tackling new challenges.
Commenting on the increasingly inward-looking nature of young people, a prominent international business scholar is urging more students to experience different cultures at a time when they are still sensitive to new stimuli.
"The younger generation in general have much sharper or higher sensitivity to things that are new. So, if they come across something new, something inspiring, something very different from what they are used to, these things tend to make a greater impact on them," Yoko Ishikura, professor at the Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times in Tokyo.