Transnational identity: The struggles of being and becoming a Japanese female professor in a neo-kokusaika phase of Japan

As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics approached (though now tentatively postponed to 2021), Japan stepped up on its nationwide kokusaika (“internationalization”) campaign to prepare for the big moment. This frenzied internationalization movement is not a new trend for Japan, particularly in the education sector where since the 1980s, the government has advanced a number of megaprojects in the name of kokusaika. Having completed my PhD in the United States on the internationalization of Japanese higher education, and having returned to Japan to begin working as a faculty member at a national university, I look into the development of my transnational identity through incidents, moments, and practices against the rhetoric and realities of kokusaika. This article argues that my analysis of the kokusaika phenomenon has shifted along with the changing tenor of my transnational experience from being a PhD student in the United States to becoming a Japanese female professor back in Japan. My transnational experience, as demonstrated in the article, helps put my own theorization of kokusaika in perspective, while also posing questions regarding “shifting transnationality” in knowledge production.