Building links through education: Japan and the United Kingdom

In this article, we identify challenges and propose ways forward regarding the development of links across countries through education. Following introductory remarks about the importance and growing recognition of the significance of such links, we make general and then contextualized comments about collaboration in higher education, particularly in the relatively underexplored area of connections between Japan and the United Kingdom. We highlight some of the main challenges that obstruct the achievement of positive linkages across countries through education. We discuss five key areas that we feel are important to the development of positive links, drawing attention to a particular form of interculturalism, a shared academic focus (especially in relation to global citizenship education), common professional interests, organizational support and, finally, personal factors.