Internationalisation and paternalist micro-management in a Japanese university Jeremy Breaden Monash University Jeremy.Breaden@monash.edu Abstract How is the concept of internationalisation (kokusaika) is operationalised by Japanese universities? This article addresses this question by examining one university‘s engagement with the residents of its international student accommodation facility, ‗Global House‘. I argue that the distinctive combination of benevolence and authoritarianism characterising the university‘s management of Global House, a combination which I term ‗paternalism‘, can be understood by reference to the obligations assumed by the university as part of its internationalisation agenda. International student presence must be managed strategically because such students are perceived by their universities as both assets and liabilities, and both constituents and externalities. An appreciation of these competing pressures helps to demystify paternalist approaches to international student management observed in Global House. Paternalism appears at first glance to be a dysfunction of the internationalisation process, but it is better understood as an organisational context for the performance thereof. I use this analysis to argue the need to build a stronger conception of the university as a principal protagonist in, rather than simply an object of, internationalisation. This discussion also highlights the importance of developing alternative accounts of internationalisation—ones that are focused more on contextualised descriptions than proscriptive definitions. Introduction International students are the nexus of the technical and the symbolic in university internationalisation in Japan. They are the embodied manifestation of a university‘s commitment to global educational engagement, and at the same time treated as a test of actual capacity to internationalise successfully. Dealing with the physical needs of international students is an immediate concern for the universities hosting them. This task in itself, however, demands affirmation of, or at least engagement with, the theme of cultural change which is so central to the Japanese discourse of internationalisation. When the number of international students on campus is small and internationalisation remains auxiliary to the university‘s domestically-focused operations (even if consistently affirmed and highlighted in promotional literature), it is possible for a university to sideline these concerns by enlisting a small body of academic and administrative staff members, often organised as an ‗international centre‘, to take responsibility for international student welfare. As numbers grow, however, and as ‗internationalisation‘ escapes from the pages of brochures and mission statements and emerges as a central pillar in the university‘s operational agenda, it becomes necessary to manage international student presence more actively.