Self-discovery in the cross-cultural context: A case study of Japanese students who stayed in Australia

Internationalism is now a familiar term in both Japan and Australia. It has also been some time since student exchanges between these countries grew in popularity. Over the past 10 years, the number of Japanese students coming to Australia to study, whether for the short- or long-term, has increased dramatically. The number of exchange and other students from Australia heading to Japan to study also appears to be on the rise. However, the focus has always been and still is on the actual process of studying abroad. Any cultural understanding, particularly that of daily life appears rather neglected, being left solely to the host families and the like. The international understanding and exchange inherent to studying abroad is an issue that is yet to be considered at a deeper level. International exchange not only heightens the level of empathetic understanding of other cultures, but may even extend as far as contributing towards international security. It therefore goes without saying that it is important to increase the number of people who hold an interest in, understand the appeal and have a love of the culture and lifestyle of their own country. As people make an effort to understand others, they also find themselves working toward a deeper personal understanding. As such, promoting this process could also be considered as being an added value of studying abroad. This thesis utilized a questionnaire to look at the kinds of self discoveries that are made from other cultures by students from Japan and Australia when on exchange and from that, considers the process in which gaining an understanding of others leads to an increased effort to understand oneself. It concludes that studying abroad is the best form of obvious international exchange and as such, it may be used to play an important role in the future betterment of international understanding. This is my original research and hope it helps internationalization of Australian study abroad industry.