ABSTRACT
This chapter explores another mode of Japanese university engagement in Asia: the export of Japanese approaches to education. The case study here is the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT). The chapter offers a chronological review of MJIIT’s development from its instigation at a Prime Ministerial-level meeting held at a particular fortuitous moment in Japan-Malaysia relations in 2001 through to its eventual opening in 2011. This review is complemented with qualitative insights into the institute’s present-day operation gained through interviews with key personnel and stakeholders. The analysis reveals that this bilateral collaborative project hinges on Japan’s remarkably durable status in Southeast Asia as a paradigm of technological development and an implicit acceptance of prototypical Japanese educational philosophies. It also articulates an evolving and highly contingent notion of ‘equal partnership’ between Japanese and Malaysian academic collaborators and between the countries of Japan and Malaysia themselves, underscored by shared consciousness of geopolitical pressures and competitive challenges emanating from other parts of the region. It is suggested that concrete initiatives such as MJIIT play important roles as nodes for the production and reproduction of transnational educational narratives in Asia.
