The Japanese government looks to be redirecting the strategic foci of its higher education internationalisation policy by budgeting new funding for a Campus Asia Project and short-term student exchange programmes. The FY2011 budget was approved by the cabinet on 24 December 2010, confirming a new funding stream of JPY 2.2 billion (EUR 20 million) to promote two-way student exchange among Japan, Asia and the United States. Ten new core universities are slated to receive the new funding in the Campus Asia Project and ten other new core universities will receive support for cooperation with the United States. The high-profile Global 30 Project continues to receive JPY 2.9 billion (EUR 26 million) but with a new focus on the development of industry-academia collaboration and inter-university networks rather than the recruitment international students, as was originally planned.   

In the new budget for student exchange, funding for public relations abroad and preparation for accepting international students has been decreased while the support for encouraging Japanese students to study abroad has been significantly increased. Short-term exchange (for fewer than three months), both inbound and outbound, has become a priority, with new funding totalling JPY 2.2billion (EUR 20 million).

The new strategies of focusing on Asia and Japan’s long-standing exchange partners in the United States, as well as on student exchange of fewer than three months, are designed to contribute to Japan’s 300 000 International Students Plan by 2020, a target announced in July 2008 when the Global 30 project was launched.