Regional cooperation in Northeast Asia: an analysis of policy ideas across institutions and disciplines in Japanese higher education
Keywords: Regionalism
Regional cooperation
East Asian international relations
Japanese higher education

This doctoral thesis is a qualitative study of policy ideas and programs in the higher education sector aimed at fostering regional cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea. The aims of the research were to understand the cognitive and normative ideas about regional cooperation in Northeast Asia from the perspectives of actors involved in government-initiated programs for higher education regional cooperation at Japanese universities. This takes in an investigation of how policy ideas at the government-level are adopted and adapted across different institutional and disciplinary contexts, and explores the conditions under which the ideas of actors at universities are implemented and any perceived barriers that impede their realization. To investigate these issues, two government-initiated programs for regional cooperation were selected, one representing higher education’s societal role as a producer of research-based knowledge, and the other representing its social function as a site for teaching and learning. The program addressing the former role is the A3 Foresight program, a funding scheme for scientists to engage in regional research collaboration. The program addressing the latter role is CAMPUS Asia, a regional exchange program for students at top universities in the three countries.
The research design took the form of an interpretive study underpinned by a social constructivist epistemology. Nine participating universities were selected as cases, and the primary source of data were the transcripts of semi-structured interviews with 67 individuals involved in varying capacities in either A3 Foresight or CAMPUS Asia. 52 documents from five key governmental organizations involved in regional cooperation were also collected and analyzed, and these served as structuring elements with which to compare and illuminate the ideas of actors in the selected universities. Data analysis and interpretation involved a combination of methods, including the deductive application of an analytical framework from an International Relations theory known as discursive institutionalism along with inductive thematic analysis.
The constructed findings highlight a range of interconnected ideas about the current state and possible futures of regional cooperation in Northeast Asia. Variation in ideas about higher education regional cooperation connected to the distinctive underlying philosophies of different academic disciplines, with STEM fields focused on ‘borderless’ knowledge production and competitiveness, the Arts on cultural connections and creative collaboration, and Social Sciences on communicative action for the resolution of regional problems. Each of these idealized visions intersected in practice with government-level ideas of regional cooperation for global competitiveness, resulting in various tensions and the frequent repurposing of government policy rhetoric to align with institutional and disciplinary orientations. Actors described a number of perceived ideational and institutional barriers impeding the realization of their visions for regional cooperation. Some lamented how neoliberal policies marked by competitive project-based funding schemes hindered both domestic cooperation within and across Japanese universities as well as efforts to implement effective strategies for internationalization. At the societal level, many reported that nationalistic worldviews espoused by politicians and the media, incommensurable historical memories, and frequent diplomatic tensions posed persistent barriers to regional stability, prosperity, and possibilities for educational exchange and research collaboration. However, many students who participated in one of the two programs reported broadened perspectives, an increased awareness of a shared humanity, and renewed hope for the future of the region. In the final chapter of the thesis these and other emergent themes are critically discussed in light of extant empirical and theoretical scholarship. I address the study’s novel empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions to knowledge and present an argument on the importance of incorporating studies of the ideational dimension into research on higher education regional cooperation with examples and justifications from the case of Japan. I also consider limitations of the study and implications for further research.