Internationalization Without Historical Education : Teaching Humanities in Modern Japan

In the early 2000s, there were significant changes in the growth of the number of foreigners coming to Japan for a variety of purposes. If in previous times the main interest of the Japanese side was in the "import of knowledge" in the form of trained specialists and young research scientists, now the main goal has become strengthening the economy "from within" through the development of international tourism, student exchanges and the hiring of foreign workers. The appearance of a large number of foreigners in the country increases the risk of problems in relations with the local population, which in the case of Japan is reinforced by the shortcomings of the current educational system, which pays little attention to the teaching of such general humanities subjects as history, geography and a number of others. In recent years, some changes have been outlined in this area, but the measures taken are half-hearted and the general level of knowledge of world history and geography among the Japanese remains very low.