The following is a guest article written by Jonas Timson, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Timson enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

Last fall, I enrolled in the course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education.” The reason why I took this course is that I was genuinely curious about how international and cross-cultural awareness and understanding is actually taught academically. As a person born in a bicultural family, international and cross-cultural understanding has been a concept surrounding me naturally in some sense, and I wasn’t completely sure whether I had been giving careful consideration regarding its true nature. 

Two of the most impressive aspects of this course were (1) the stories of Chinese and Japanese immigrants’ footpaths to the Angel Island Immigration Station—through which thousands of Asian immigrants passed—and (2) the background of Japanese war brides. During the lectures on these two topics, I thought of the following questions: How did Chinese immigrants contribute to the development of the Transcontinental Railroad? How did the detainment and interrogation of Chinese at the Angel Island Immigration Station affect them? What was the fate of Japanese immigrants and their descendants during World War II? What was life like for Japanese women who married American soldiers after World War II? How are people today helping to educate and enlighten others about these experiences? 

While contemplating these questions, I realized that every person who appeared in the stories that were shared had also helped to shape America, and none of them can be ignored. In Japan as well, there are cases where people from foreign countries—such as immigrants in ancient times and foreign inhabitants in the Meiji Era—have contributed to the development of the country. Also, it is a fact that many immigrants are taking part in Japanese society today, including the labor industry. Through this class, I could apply what I learned from the course to the context of Japan today. The course also made me realize that these people and their various contributions to Japanese society should not be ignored.

However, even if we accept such an understanding, it is not easy to develop empathy for those who are different from you. I suppose that the ability to see oneself in others is important to develop and increase mutual understanding. In order to do so, starting from knowing oneself is important. Looking at not only one’s footpath, but also one’s country will help to raise awareness and make oneself better. In fact, by practicing “mindfulness,” that is to say, by improving self knowledge, we can certainly pay attention to others and embrace them. The session on mindfulness given by the guest teacher, Dr. Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu, gave the class many hints for practicing mutual understanding.

We also learned about culturally relevant curriculum in this course. According to UNESCO (2023), culturally relevant (or responsive) curriculum is “a curriculum that respects learners’ cultures and prior experiences and it acknowledges and values the legitimacy of different cultures—not just the dominant culture of a society—and encourages intercultural understanding.” As I mentioned previously, the class gave me an opportunity to learn about Japanese and Chinese immigrants, Angel Island, Japanese war brides, and other related topics. Taking a look back at my family’s history, my ancestors were also immigrants to America. My father is also an immigrant to Japan. They must have overcome lots of hardships to settle and make a stable life in the new countries to which they moved. I have been conscious about my roots, but through this course, I came to understand my roots more deeply and to more fully appreciate immigrants in the society around me as familiar and highly relevant. Indeed, this course was deeply culturally relevant to me.

Japan is becoming increasingly diverse. The number of immigrants and the number of children born in multicultural families is gradually increasing. The foreign population in Japan reached a record high of 3,070,000 at the end of December 2022 (NHK World-Japan News, 2023). Japan is literally moving towards a multicultural symbiosis society stage by stage. It is important for all of us to aim for a better society of well-being in our lives by being conscious of diversity and inclusion.

Lastly, I happened to meet a graduate student from another school at the University of Tokyo the other day. Like me, he was also born in a multicultural family. I am somewhat older than him, but though we had just met, I was surprised to hear what he said. “Thanks to the great efforts of predecessors who were born in multicultural families like you, Japan today is now in a more culturally aware age for people born under a similar situation. You are also one of them. I owe you very much.” This is actually what I have been thinking every day towards members of multicultural families in Japan who came before me. Yes, today’s society is built upon the effort of predecessors. I didn’t think I was going to hear those kinds of words from a younger person, but by his words, I thought I might have been contributing a little to the cultural diversity and inclusiveness of Japanese society. 

The course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” had a very great impact on me. By applying what I’ve learned effectively, I hope to live as one who contributes positively to cross-cultural awareness and diversity and a society based on inclusiveness through mutual understanding. 

References: 

“Number of foreign nationals in Japan climbs to record high of over 3 million,” NHK World-Japan News, 24 March 2023. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230324_21/.

“IBE Glossary of curriculum terminology,” UNESCO Digital Library, 24 March 2023, https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000223059.

Since SPICE’s inception in the 1970s, SPICE curriculum writers have incorporated primary sources from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in many of its curriculum units and have also recommended that teachers consider utilizing the Hoover Institution’s rich archives in their teaching. Engaging students in the analysis of primary sources has been a hallmark of SPICE curricula from its inception. SPICE curriculum units that have included primary sources from the Hoover Institution have focused on the former Soviet Union, Asia (primarily China and Japan), Europe, and Latin America.

In a new collaboration with the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, SPICE’s Curriculum Specialist Waka Brown developed Fanning the Flames, a curriculum that engages students in the analysis of primary sources from the website Fanning the Flames: Propaganda in Modern Japan, which features Japanese propaganda from the Meiji Era (1868–1912) to the Pacific War (1941–45).

The description of Fanning the Flames from the website reads:

Fanning the Flames: Propaganda in Modern Japan presents visual testimony, supported by cutting-edge scholarly research, to demonstrate the power of graphic propaganda and its potential to reach broad audiences without raising their consciousness perhaps to dangerous effect. The Hoover Institution Library & Archives is pleased to present a curated selection of compelling material on the history of modern Japanese propaganda from our [the Hoover Institution’s] rich collections. Central to this project are fresh academic perspectives on select topics. We were fortunate to receive contributions from the world’s top scholars in the fields of Chinese history, the Japanese military, the media, intelligence, and art history.

This ambitious project encompasses the Meiji Era (1868–1912) through to the Pacific theater of World War II (1941–45), a period of increasingly intense propaganda activities in the Empire of Japan. By studying multiple types of graphic media over time, we hope to better understand underlying themes and discover the unique nature of Japanese propaganda from one historical moment to another, as well as its continuity over time. The theses generated by the contributors highlight not only the top-down delivery of propaganda, its pervasive influence on ordinary people, particularly young children, and the muscle of the media, but also grassroots participation in the consumption of propaganda.

Brown developed activities for the following core topics on the Fanning the Flames website: “The Rise of Empire,” “Defining Conflicts of Modern Japan,” “War & Media in Modern Japan,” “Nishiki-e Defined,” and “Kamishibai Defined.” The activities introduce students to the importance of understanding and interpreting propaganda and engage them in a critical analysis of the primary sources. 

SPICE would like to express its appreciation to Dr. Kaoru Ueda, who curated many of the materials used on the Fanning the Flames website. She also manages the Japanese Diaspora Collection at the Hoover Institution and recently published a book also titled Fanning the Flames: Propaganda in Modern Japan. SPICE would also like to thank Marissa Rhee, lead exhibitions team member for the Fanning the Flames project. Marissa organized and brought together diverse components of the book publication, online portal, and physical exhibition. 

The teacher’s guide was made possible with a grant from the Japan Fund, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. The teacher’s guide is available below.

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Thirty years ago, Katsusada Hirose spent a year (1993–94) as a Visiting Scholar with the Global Affiliates Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC). Hirose represented Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) at APARC and worked closely with the founding director of APARC, now Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto. Hirose fondly recalls being able to commute by bicycle to campus. In his last position at MITI in 1999, Hirose held the post of Administrative Vice-Minister of MITI and METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) and after a distinguished career with MITI and METI, Hirose became Governor of Oita Prefecture in 2003. Governor Hirose has also served as the President of the Governor’s Association of Kyushu Region since 2010.

On August 26, 2019, Okimoto organized a California-Japan Governors’ Symposium at Stanford University and invited Governor Hirose as well as Governor Ryuta Ibaragi (Okayama), Governor Heita Kawakatsu (Shizuoka), Vice Governor Yutaka Ota (Nagano), and Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki (Hiroshima). The California-Japan Governors’ Symposium was co-hosted by the Silicon Valley Japan Platform (SVJP) and the U.S.-Japan Council. Okimoto serves as Co-Chair of the SVJP Executive Committee.

On the same day as the Governors’ Symposium, SPICE officially launched Stanford e-Oita, an online course that is offered annually to high school students in Oita Prefecture and is taught by Kasumi Yamashita. Former Ambassador to Japan and former APARC Fellow Michael Armacost joined the ceremony and made opening comments, including a statement about how leaders like Governor Hirose have been pivotal in strengthening U.S.–Japan relations. Governor Hirose followed by not only recalling the invaluable intellectual experiences and opportunities to network that his year at Stanford provided him, but also fondly recalling the informal experiences like outings with Armacost at Stanford Golf Course. Stanford e-Oita would not have been possible without the vision and leadership of Governor Hirose.

I had the honor of meeting with Governor Hirose last month in his office in Oita Prefecture and learned that he will be retiring this year after serving 20 years as governor. We were joined by Superintendent Tetsuo Okamoto of Oita Prefecture. When I informed Professor Okimoto of the Governor’s upcoming retirement, he stated, “Governor Hirose is a highly respected political leader who has devoted his long career to public service as a higher civil servant in Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and as the elected Governor of Oita Prefecture from 2003 to 2023, spanning a productive era of two decades. What an extraordinary career and remarkable legacy.”

Stanford e-Oita Instructor Kasumi Yamashita added, “Empowering Stanford e-Oita high school students has been a highlight of my teaching career, and I am grateful to Governor Hirose for his unwavering support and for this opportunity.”

Professor Emeritus Okimoto, Instructor Yamashita, and I would like to wish Governor Hirose a wonderful retirement and look forward to his next visit to Stanford University. 

The following is Part 10 of a multiple-part series. To read previous installments in this series, please visit the following articles: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9. 

Since December 8, 2020, SPICE has posted nine articles that highlight reflections from 72 students on the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” Part 10 features eight additional reflections. The reflections below do not necessarily reflect those of the SPICE staff.

The free educational website “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” offers six lessons on immigration, civic engagement, leadership, civil liberties & equity, justice & reconciliation, and U.S.–Japan relations. The lessons encourage critical thinking through class activities and discussions. On March 24, 2021, SPICE’s Rylan Sekiguchi was honored by the Association for Asian Studies for his authorship of the lessons that are featured on the website, which was developed by the Mineta Legacy Project in partnership with SPICE.

Tai Brown, Oregon 
When I think about what being an American means to me, in my mind, it’s about how I am able to voice my opinion and be heard by others. This is a reality that many people take for granted. The ability that I, and all other Americans have, to influence the people around us with our voices and our individual opinions is something which I feel many Americans think of as more of a right, and don’t realize it is such a privilege. I recognize that I have this privilege, so even when I don’t get my way, I’m able to realize how people in some countries aren’t able to say what they want. Being aware of this freedom makes me realize how lucky I am to be an American. 

Thea Louise Dai, California 
When I think of the term “American,” my mind immediately drifts toward the American dream: a promise of opportunity and freedom that drew my parents—and so many others like them—to this country. But the United States, as I’ve grown to learn, is far from perfect. In the past few years alone, I’ve witnessed that inequalities can divide our country, violence can terrorize our communities, and systemic racism can cripple our institutions. In the classroom, I’ve read about racist housing policies, discriminatory immigration practices, and failed U.S. military missions. To me, being American means seeing the United States with all its blemishes and imperfections, and still believing in the possibility of change. Americans actively invest in the U.S.’s future by celebrating our successes and values, acknowledging our shortcomings, and fighting for the prospect of a better country.

Tadeusz Jose, California 
There is something abstract about America. Being so vast in the experiences of its people, America is hugely interpretable. And each interpretation, however contradictory to another, is justifiable and valid. To many, America has been a land of safety and success. To many, America has been a cruel home, a source of pain and anguish on the individual to the societal level. So then, how can a common identity exist between people without a common experience? How can people who live in such different Americas have a common American identity? Because our identity lies in the American ideal, not the American reality. Every American believes in this country’s promise of opportunity, freedom, and equality. I think someone who came to America ten minutes ago believing in those ideals is just as American as a founding father. Being American is believing in America.

Kai Kaplinsky, California 
I do not have a short and clear answer. I was born in Israel and raised in Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and now California. My family is both Japanese and Israeli/Jewish, and my upbringing and nationalities are filled with diversity. When I think of the United States or being an American, it means having opportunities; viewing failure as not trying or an incentive to try harder; appreciating differences; and having an impact as an immigrant. Like any other place, differences in gender, race, and ethnicity can make life as a minority challenging in the United States. But I feel that the United States, as a country, is represented by people who are vocal and trying to execute changes and are constantly moving in a better direction. I feel that what it means to be an American depends on us, and how we live our lives.

Abigail Kim, California 
To me, the American identity is like the inside of a mixing pot. I cannot think of one culture that ties us all together. We are the product of so many different cultures and people from all over the world interacting and learning from one another, eventually evolving into a broad identity labeled as “American.” As the daughter of two Korean immigrants, it’s hard for me to feel “American.” Being American in its very essence is not limited to my own experience. Even though the American identity is so inclusive, I feel as though knowing only one culture—my Korean American culture—and knowing less about the other cultures that mix into being American limits my ability to truly be an American. Thus, I think that being American is really about education: how keenly aware one is of the people who make up this country and the individual experiences we have as we intermingle with each other.

Joshua Koo, California 
I am fully Korean by birth and spend every summer there. So do I feel fully “American”? That is something I’ve always wondered. Sometimes I feel like a stranger in a strange land in both countries, despite having dual citizenship. People always ask me in what country I will choose to live my adult life, and, to be honest, I don’t know. But that is the beauty of America. America does not make me choose. America allows everyone to find out who they are and live for that. I can live in Korea for twenty years and still return as a U.S. citizen, and I will feel at home. That is the dream of America: to make everyone feel at home. Not everyone does, of course, but America is the one place whose ideal is to always try.

Elise Lamb, Oregon 
To me, being an American means having the rights I am entitled to while being confident in my ability to take a stand against any who attempt to strip them away from me. Looking at the patriotism of those around me, it often feels as though the privileges of being an American get drowned out in the negative aspects of the country. However, unlike the vast majority of the world, America not only allows, but encourages independence and self-determination, placing importance on those finding their own identity and success. Of course, America is far from perfect, but it’s essential that Americans acknowledge the liberties and opportunities allotted to them, especially in a setting where those privileges are hard to find.

Alyssa Wang, California 
To me, being American means being free. This concept is shown throughout our history, from the First Amendment (the right to freedom of speech and religion), to America’s icon of Lady Liberty, and so much more. Being Japanese on my mother’s side and Chinese and European on my father’s, I have heard stories from my maternal grandparents about the Japanese American internment camps and stories about my paternal grandparents’ experiences in New York. Looking back, I feel incredibly grateful for the freedoms that we have today. Even though the United States is not perfect, we are doing our best to provide liberty and opportunities that aren’t possible in some other countries. We, as Americans, have the freedom to pursue our dreams and make our own choices. We have the freedom to determine our government, to decide our beliefs, and to define our own future.

The Stanford/SPICE East Asia Seminars for Teachers in Hawai‘i or “Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i” is a nine-month fellowship program created to empower educators to reinvigorate their teaching of Asia. The program is made possible through the generous support of the Freeman Foundation.

Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i convenes Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawai‘i Fellows for four virtual seminars during the academic year and a culminating three-day in-person institute the following summer. So far, this year’s Fellows have participated in virtual seminars featuring Stanford-affiliated scholars Ethan Segal (Associate Professor of History and Chairperson of the Japan Council at Michigan State University), Zoë Gioja (PhD candidate in History and a PhD minor in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University), and Andrew Walder (Denise O’Leary and Kent Thiry Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University). These sessions have focused on Japan, Korea, and China, respectively. The final virtual seminar will take place next month, when Fellows will meet Scot Marciel, former U.S. Ambassador to Myanmar and Indonesia, and deepen their understanding of Southeast Asia.

“I’ve really enjoyed learning in this environment alongside all of the SPICE fellows, and [I] find the content very interesting and informative to my work,” commented Fellow Jonathan Chang, who manages a national mentorship program for Asian American youth. “I’ve had several conversations with my family, friends, and colleagues about our learnings and it’s been really great!”

Besides receiving content lectures and engaging in Q&A sessions with the guest speakers, Fellows also debrief their learnings and share favorite teaching resources with each other, so that everyone can benefit from their shared learning and teaching experience.

The current 2022–23 cohort of Stanford/Freeman SEAS Hawai‘i Fellows is comprised of 19 teachers representing three islands (Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, and Hawai‘i Island). Most teach world history and/or U.S. history, and others teach subjects such as English, math, foreign language, and civics. The SPICE staff is pleased to work with the Hawai‘i educators below. 

Amy Boehning, Mililani High School
Carl Wright, Kapolei High School
Chayanee Brooks, Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School
David Brooks, Ka‘u High and Pahala Elementary School 
Grace Nguyen, Konawaena High School  
Gregory Gushiken, Punahou School 
Hannah Lim, ‘Iolani School 
John Ates, Le Jardin Academy 
Jonathan Chang, Apex for Youth 
Jonathon Medeiros, Kauaʻi High School
Laura Viana, Mid-Pacific Institute 
Mariko Shiraishi, Hawaii Baptist Academy 
Michael Hamilton, Leilehua High School 
Molly M. Satta-Ellis, Konawaena High School 
Niti D. Villinger, Hawai‘i Pacific University 
Patricia Tupinio, Leilehua High School 
Ria Lulla, Kawananakoa Middle School 
Sarah Fujioka, Waipahu High School 
William Milks, ‘Iolani School

Fellow Amy Boehning launched Mililani High School’s Asian Studies class eight years ago, offering it for a single period. Now it is offered for four periods and still has a waiting list. Like many others in her cohort, she joined Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i in hopes of adding more depth and richness to her existing practice. “I’m so excited to be a part of [this] program. Everything so far has been stellar, and I have immediately been able to add to my Asian Studies curriculum and Social Studies Directed Studies curriculum.”

Boehning also leads Mililani’s National History Day program, and she has noticed that each year more students choose to focus their projects on Asia-centric topics.

“It’s our goal to support teachers like Amy as they coach and mentor students like that,” said Sabrina Ishimatsu, a coordinator of Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i. “It’s always gratifying to know that our program is making a positive difference for both educators and students.”

Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i is coordinated by Ishimatsu and Rylan Sekiguchi.

In addition to Stanford SEAS Hawai‘i, SPICE offers teacher PD opportunities virtually to teachers nationwide and locally in California to middle school teachers, high school teachers, and community college instructors.

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By traditional measures, South Korea is not a large country. It ranks 28th in the world in population and only 107th in land mass. Its language is not widely spoken outside the Korean peninsula, and it does not have a large diaspora. Yet since around 2005, it has arguably become the major producer of youth culture in the world. How did this happen?

Stanford professor Dafna Zur has filmed a video to answer that complicated and important question. Dr. Zur is an Associate Professor of Korean literature and culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Stanford University. She specializes in Korean literature, cinema, and popular culture. As part of her research, Dr. Zur has interviewed the main architects of South Korea’s popular culture wave, including SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man and many K-Pop stars.

Stanford’s Center for East Asian Studies and SPICE collaborated on a discussion guide to bring the lessons from Dr. Zur’s video to high school and university students. The video and discussion guide are available for free on SPICE’s Multimedia page. They address the following questions:

• What is popular culture?
• What is soft power, and why is it important?
• How did South Korea become such a successful producer of popular culture in the past 20 years?
• How can we measure South Korea’s success in becoming a popular culture powerhouse? 
• How did South Korea’s popular culture evolve in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? What’s the next stage in its development?
• How easy would it be for other countries to replicate South Korea’s soft power success? 

Because the main vehicle for South Korea’s rise as a soft power giant has been Korean pop music, known as K-Pop, Dr. Zur directs viewers to several music videos that illustrate how K-Pop has evolved since 1997 and where it might go in the future.

She provides deep insight into the building blocks of K-Pop’s success, which she identifies as support from the national government, the kihoeksa (entertainment conglomerate) system, technology, timing, content release strategy, and fan communities. In particular, Dr. Zur explains how the kihoeksa are able to produce high-quality entertainment at a low cost and how their scale has allowed them to invest in new technologies that keep them at the forefront of pop culture production.

The discussion guide provides context for students to understand the complexity in Dr. Zur’s video. In preparation for the video, students take and then discuss a quiz on South Korea’s popular culture. The teacher then defines key terms such as popular culture and soft power and displays charts that show how South Korea’s soft power has increased since 2000. 

Students view Dr. Zur’s video and the accompanying K-Pop music videos as homework and respond to a series of questions on the main themes of the video. During the next class period, they work in groups to develop a plan for another country to elevate its soft power by drawing on what they learned about South Korea’s success. This complex activity requires students to clearly define the factors that have led to the popularity of Korean popular culture, distinguish between the factors they believe are replicable and those that are not, and then adapt this analysis into a set of recommendations for another country that hopes to achieve the same success as South Korea. After groups present their findings to the class, the teacher concludes the lesson by asking students to predict whether South Korea will be able to maintain its soft power dominance into the future. 

The discussion guide contains a complete transcript of the video and is appropriate for advanced secondary students and university students. 

The video lecture and guide were made possible through the support of U.S. Department of Education National Resource Center funding under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

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The following is a guest article written by Yuntong Hu, a PhD student at the University of Tokyo. Hu enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

I enrolled in the class “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education” in fall 2022. One of my biggest takeaways from the class is the need to consider cross-cultural education as an essential part of higher education. Lectures by scholars from diverse research backgrounds engaged the students in various discussions that included textbook comparisons among five societies, culturally relevant curriculum, and gender-related issues. The discussions of these and other topics greatly inspired me. 

Concerning topics like textbooks, I have often noticed conflict among different cultures and countries. Miscommunication and misunderstandings seem so commonplace that it has made me wonder whether information on other cultures and countries—provided through formal schooling—has not been provided in a balanced way. By attending the class, I realized that most of us have few opportunities to hear various perspectives on controversial topics in our schooling and that it is often the case that students learn little about other cultures and as a result, lose the chance to reflect more upon their own cultures. 

As an international student in Japan, I am often asked why I chose to study abroad. My answer is always, “I want to look at my country, China, from different perspectives.” By understanding other cultures, we recognize what is unique in our culture. Cross-cultural education can help people realize a more interconnected world where different cultures can coexist and even find benchmarks or commonalities for further cooperation. 

My PhD research topic is related to the development of world-class universities, and in this class, I realized that it is essential to think about universities from a global perspective. Nowadays, many countries consider world-class universities as a type of soft power and encourage them to play a role in the transmission of culture. However, without mutual understanding, people cannot accept different cultures easily. It is important for universities to hold an open attitude toward other cultures before they transmit their notions of culture. 

Globalization is not just about using English in classes or recruiting foreign faculty and asking them to conduct the same research as they did in their own countries. In Asia, many universities pay much attention to numbers, e.g., the number of international members, the number of papers published in English, the number of classes conducted in English. But what about the communication between foreign faculty and local students? What about the campus climate where members representing various cultures can feel comfortable? What about the presentation of diverse perspectives on controversial topics? Beyond numbers, there are many more issues to consider.  

The class provided by SPICE-CASEER helped me consider cross-cultural education in the context of not only pre-collegiate education but also in higher education. Moreover, as a student with cross-cultural experiences, I felt so fortunate to have the opportunity to reflect upon my own education and upbringing again and also to view China from other perspectives.

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The following is a guest article written by Marie Fujimoto, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo. Fujimoto enrolled in a course at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Education called “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” which was co-taught by SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai and former CASEER Director Dr. Hideto Fukudome. SPICE will feature several student reflections on the course in 2023.

In the course “Introduction to International and Cross-Cultural Education,” I was intellectually and emotionally challenged by the lectures of Dr. Mukai and our guest speakers. I was impressed by the pedagogical materials on Angel Island Immigrant Station by SPICE’s Jonas Edman and Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation Executive Director Edward Tepporn. I also grew frustrated to hear that not all schools recognize the value of teaching the diverse history of the United States. Listening to Dr. Liz Baham’s story of many African American children never aspiring to higher education due to systemic racial discrimination that is deep-rooted in U.S. society, I once again felt helpless. 

I am fully Japanese but have an international background. When I was 13 years old, I went to England by myself to learn violin in a music boarding school. I was lucky to be surrounded by supportive teachers and peers. But still, I often recognized that I was an “outsider” because I was short with darker skin, hair, eyes, and had a strange accent, even though I rarely spoke in class in the first place. 

After two years, I came back to Japan and completed high school in Tokyo. I then decided to attend the New England Conservatory in Boston, attaining a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance in 2021. In school, there were many international students from China and Korea, and there were also Asian American students. At first, I felt comfortable to be with people who looked similar to me. However, I gradually realized that some Asian Americans went through hardships because they were not “American enough.” I sometimes heard stories of music teachers making comments on race, such as “Asian musicians have techniques, but not hearts.” These teachers were not at the New England Conservatory. I loved all the professors I met at NEC. However, classical music also has a dark history of privileging White, male, and European musicians. 

In Japan, diversity is also difficult to embrace for many, but in a different way. Compared to other countries, Japanese are generally very good at noticing small differences, creating strict social norms. This may be contributing to a Japanese society that is uniform, organized, and clean, but people are constantly pressured to be assimilated into that mainstream. And it’s not always easy for people who cannot do so for whatever reason. Once, international students told me that they were hurt by the way some Japanese interacted with them. They felt that they were treated as “outsiders.” That said, I could also see that these Japanese did not mean to be offensive at all. And that’s why I think we have a problem in our society that needs to be addressed. 

Despite social and political challenges, all of the guest instructors in our class did not give up on their goals in life, including teaching students in the United States of its diverse history. They clearly do not want more children to be confused, ignored, or alienated in school and beyond—as they often felt as students—so they have emphasized the importance of giving a voice to the traditionally unheard. This empowered me.

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Since last year, I started coaching the International Youth Orchestra at the Tokyo College of Music. It is the first orchestra in the Eastern area of Japan for pre-collegiate students with diverse national and ethnic backgrounds in Japan. Applying some of the pedagogical skills that I learned from the course, I try to create an encouraging community within the orchestra together with my co-workers. In the beginning, students seemed intimidated, but now they help each other and ask for extra support. I also collaborate with music teachers and Yukiko Tsubonou, Professor Emeritus at Japan Women’s University and Executive Director of the Institute of Creativity in Music Education. Our collaborative work is to design music classes for public schools and special needs schools, where every student can participate actively with improvisation. I bring my violin to a classroom, and students and I explore music-making spontaneously. Music can go beyond boundaries not only between countries but also within countries like Japan. 

Education can either divide or connect us, and it depends on the mindset of teachers. So, I will keep listening to voices and explore possibilities that music can have in education. I will keep moving forward, as Dr. Mukai and all the guest instructors have done.