Throughout study abroad, exchange students can undertake tertiary-level academic courses related to the host country’s cultural traditions. This paper looks at one such course offered at a university in Osaka related to Japanese martial arts（budo）. Participant questionnaire feedback is analysed and correlated with The Budō Charter; a set of martial arts principles demarcated by the Japanese Budō Association. The results of the questionnaire indicate the exchange students realized the principles inherent in Japanese martial arts because of the contact with these arts and could relate these principles to a deeper understanding of the host culture and an application to their own lives. This paper pursues the value and learning of principles related to the cultural tradition components of study abroad programs and the experience they can offer the total study abroad experience.
David Eckford (Mon,) studied this question.