An autoethnography of internationalisation: ethical dilemmas in Japanese academe

Abstract

Via an autoethnography of internationalisation, the article highlights the ethical dilemmas transnational scholars face when universities fail to denationalise their organisational culture. Section one explains the pertinence and pitfalls of autoethnography — writing oneself into existence over against a context experienced as domination — for grasping the ethical quandaries of transnational scholars in a Japanese national university (JNU). As section two shows, the persistence of ethno-national working practices in JNUs precludes both the equal treatment of transnational scholars and the recognition of their difference. Specifically, the discussion documents two mechanisms of marginalisation at the JNU in question, Tōdai (University of Tokyo): section three links the rejection of ethno-national diversity to absolutisation, viz. the generalisation of prejudice by gatekeepers in order to stigmatise transnational scholars as unfit for organisational life; and section four contends gatekeepers defend their territorialised academic culture through normalisation, which is underpinned by academic inbreeding that produces a hermitic community of sameness blind to its ethno-national prejudices. The article concludes with the ethical gymnastics of transnational scholars situated in universities that solicit their multiplicity without renovating their ethno-national culture. It also reflects upon the limited leverage of autoethnography beyond the Anglosphere, notably in a JNU organisational environment that does not recognise the strop of agency with structure. Finally, the article suggests Japan would be better off promoting a cultural form of internationalisation rather than following a commercial iteration with neo-colonial costs.