Some Aspects of the Growth of University Student Internship in Japan

This chapter reviews the recent development of internship in Japanese universities to identify some characteristic aspects of the growth of internship in the universities. The government initiated promoting internship in the late 1990s and now almost all universities provide some internship programmes. The author focuses on the policy papers for the last 20 years, especially the successive reports of the education minister advisory body, which have led the direction of the promotion of internship. Authorizing internship in curriculum was aimed from the beginning. Career education also attracted educators and policymakers while internship was a policy focus, and internship was thought to be a useful means of quality career education. Internship has turned employers' attention while Japanese-style employment and recruiting systems were reconsidered. Internship has been settled down in university curriculum as general education rather than specialized education. However, how internship is set in a curriculum is the university's discretion.