Purpose This paper aims to critically examine how Japan’s higher education internationalization policies shape intercultural identities. Drawing on a discursive framework, it interrogates the extent to which policy promotes neoliberal conceptions of transnationalism through language policy, institutional branding and credentialism. Design/methodology/approach By analyzing policy documents, rhetoric and reform initiatives, the authors trace the discursive construction of global human capital and examine how market logics influence educational values. Findings Findings reveal that Japan’s global human resource agenda privileges economic utility and elite mobility over inclusive intercultural engagement. Top Global University Project, for instance, promotes a prestige-driven model of internationalization that reproduces inequality and marginalizes alternative linguistic identities. Practical implications This study suggests that Japan reorients its internationalization agenda by integrating English as a lingua franca and expanding inclusive pedagogical models, such as collaborative online international learning. Social implications Reform efforts should prioritize intercultural reciprocity to promote more just and accessible forms of global engagement across Japanese higher education. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on intercultural education by offering a critical, Japan-specific analysis of intercultural identity formation within the context of higher education reform. Specifically, it reframes globalism not as a culturally responsive subjectivity, but as a policy construct aligned with neoliberal rationalities and the accumulation of symbolic capital.
Smith et al. (2026) studied this question.