ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on the case of Japan and identifies the unique socioeconomic and political factors that allowed writing centers to proliferate. She explores the political rationales of the writing center transfer that has occurred in Japan. The author demonstrates how writing centers spread not only through writing educators' interests in Western-based pedagogy, but also by selectively borrowing the pedagogical concepts of the writing center to match the Japanese higher education agenda. She suggests that the neoliberal climate of competing for excellence creates a platform for economically driven language planning to take place, in which traveling education models are implemented for the sake of performance, accountability, and raising important numbers. Policy borrowing is not only a matter of adopting better educational practices, but also involves deeper political and economic interests and motives. Due to increased pressures of internationalization, universities around the world look to language education models and frameworks with global recognition.
