Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program (2 page)

While the topic of Japan's integration with the rest of the world has received much attention of late, there appears to be little consensus on the
subject. Indeed, mutually opposing views carry the day. On the one hand,
we often hear that Japan has something akin to a culture of resentment toward foreigners, as if the entire country were engaged in a concerted and
well-orchestrated effort to keep them out. Media reports targeting the
"dark side" of Japan perpetuate this image of a country of reactionaries:
highly placed policymakers who regularly drop racial slurs, Ministry of
Education officials who ruthlessly censor textbooks, politicians who are
unable to come to grips with Japan's militaristic past, bureaucrats who
stubbornly cling to the status quo, and company executives who, in collusion with Ministry of International Trade and Industry officials, go out of
their way to make it difficult for foreign companies to do business in Japan.
In this view, Japan has changed little over the past century. It remains a
"closed society" at heart, and the current internationalization campaign is
little more than a smoke screen to divert attention from the country's true
nationalistic interests.

On the other hand, a competing set of images stress the many changes
that Japan has made during the postwar period. According to this model,
Japan's similarities with other industrialized countries now far outweigh
its differences. The history of postwar Japan can be read as the triumph of
urbanism over rural life, corporations over family-owned shops and farms, bread and meat over rice and fish, mass media over the oral tradition, and
meritocracy over ascription. In other words, there has been a steady, if
gradual, movement toward Western forms and meanings. Efforts at internationalization in virtually all sectors of Japanese society clearly testify to
the importance the Japanese place on changing their institutions and practices. In this view, it is unrealistic to expect Japan to change overnight; but
it is assumed that given time and proper guidance, Japan will gradually
open itself up to the rest of the world and free itself of bias.

Which of these two views is accurate? Is Japan a closed society or not?
Or do either-or characterizations oversimplify the reality of the situation?
To answer these questions requires a detailed ethnographic study based on
careful observation. Therein lies the rationale for this study.

It has been said that the best way to find out how something works is to
kick it and see whether it kicks back. The foreign participants in the JET
Program disrupt the accustomed routines in Japanese schools and communities in countless ways, intentionally and unintentionally. By examining
both the diversity and the regularities in Japanese responses to these
reform-minded youth, I hope that we can acquire a more accurate and nuanced understanding of Japan's struggle for global integration in the Heisei era.

Thirteen years have passed since I first began this project, and I have had
the good fortune of being accompanied at various stages of the journey by
many wonderful people. Mentors, colleagues, friends, and family provided
me with unselfish and sustained support, for which I am deeply grateful.

My interest in education and internationalization in Japan dates back to
the early i98os, when I was an undergraduate at Earlham College. I want
to thank the late Jackson Bailey as well as Nelson Bingham for first opening my eyes to the potential self-knowledge to be gained through the
study of Japanese culture, and for nurturing that interest both professionally and personally ever since. Nancy Rosenberger, my first mentor in
Japan, was largely responsible for cultivating my interest in examining
Japanese education through the lens of anthropology.

The research project itself could not have been accomplished without
the kindness and support of many people. In Japan, this work was entirely
dependent on the generosity and goodwill of officials in the Ministries of
Education, Home Affairs, and Foreign Affairs. I am especially grateful for
the cooperation of the senior Japanese staff and the program coordinators
at the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR),
the national-level administrative office for the JET Program. At the prefectural, municipal, and local school levels, I am indebted to the many Japanese administrators, teachers, and students, as well as the foreign participants on the JET Program, who so willingly shared their time and insights
with me. Apart from the few individuals who are on public record as playing a role in the start-up of the JET Program, or who have consented to
having their real names used, all of the above collaborators must remain
anonymous, as they were promised. (In the text, full names indicate real
names, and all others are pseudonyms.)

Throughout the initial two years of research in Japan, Caroline Yang
and her staff at the Japan-U.S. Education Commission went far beyond the
call of duty to lend a helping hand whenever possible. Tetsuya Kobayashi,
my mentor at Kyoto University, extended kindness at every opportunity.
He introduced me to many key people and generously included me in his
own research project on English teaching in Japan. Wada Minoru was instrumental in shaping my understanding of the role of the Ministry of Education in the JET Program, and I deeply appreciate the patience and good
humor with which he put up with my nagging questions for nearly ten
years. Sugimoto Hitoshi gave selflessly of his time to assist me in translating many documents, and Tachibana Masaru was instrumental in arranging many important interviews.

During my doctoral studies in anthropology and education at Stanford
University, Harumi Befu shepherded me through the dissertation process
with wisdom and patience. David Tyack, Ray McDermott, and John Meyer
also contributed substantially to the project. Merry White, Susan Pharr,
Carol Gluck, and John Montgomery helped me sharpen my focus on the
big issues during a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Program on
U.S.-Japan Relations at Harvard University.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Thomas Rohlen. Possessing a rare
combination of compassion and perspective, he has been a source of inspiration for this project from start to finish. I dare say I have learned more
about things Japanese from Tom than from any other single person.

Many other people have taken the time to share ideas and encouragement at various stages of the endeavor: I am especially grateful to Catherine Lewis, John Singleton, Richard Rubinger, Gerald LeTendre, Steve Nussbaum, Edward Beauchamp, Marc Ventresca, Nancy Sato, Becky Erwin
Fukuzawa, Diane Musselwhite, Brent Gaston, Tsuneyuki and Kiyomi Ueki,
Fumiko Arao, Robert Clayton, Buffy Lundgren, Angela Joyce, and Midori
Kuno Hasegawa.

For contributing monetary assistance to support this research project, I
wish to thank the Fulbright Program of the Japan-U.S. Education Commission; the Japan Fund of the Institute of International Studies at Stanford
University; the Spencer Foundation of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation; the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations and the Pacific
Basin Research Center at Harvard University; the College of Wooster's
Henry Luce III Fund for Distinguished Scholarship; the Great Lakes College Association's Japan Fund; and the Northeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies. A one-semester leave received from the College
of Wooster in the fall of 1995 was invaluable in facilitating work on an initial draft of the book.

The editing process benefited from the valuable input of several persons. First and foremost, I want to thank Robert Juppe, Jr., for his tireless
and inspirational commitment to this project. Bob not only shared his
unique perspective on the JET Program with me during the time of fieldwork but also spent dozens of hours writing out lengthy and insightful
comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript. Scott Olinger, too, provided detailed commentary on the same draft based on his long association
with the program. The very existence of such thoughtful alumni who care
deeply about the long-term prospects of the JET Program is striking testimony to its considerable influence.

Laura Driussi at the University of California Press was indefatigable in
her support of the project as it moved through the complex maze toward
publication. Her patience, wisdom, and good humor all shaped the final
product in important ways. Sheila Levine and Scott Norton were of great
help as well, and I received superb editorial assistance from Alice Falk. Special thanks are also due to three anonymous reviewers for their helpful
suggestions. All errors of fact and interpretation, of course, remain my
own.

Any project of this magnitude is ultimately dependent on the goodwill
of family members, and my grandparents, parents, and parents-in-law
have contributed their time and moral support as well as substantive suggestions. A special thanks to my father-in-law, Jack Love, for giving so generously of his time and talent to help fashion the attic office in which the
final stages of this manuscript were written. My children Brennen and
Alaina have contributed to the book in their own way, asking probing questions such as "Daddy, what is data?" and "Are you ever going to be finished
with that thing?" Last but certainly not least, my wife Cathy has been a
constant companion, critic, and confidante throughout the entire journey.
At various stages of the project, and always when it was most needed, she
has offered wisdom, reassurance, perspective, and impatience. For all these
contributions, and especially for her uncommonly good judgment, I am
truly grateful.