Mission Statement

The Japan Intercultural Institute (JII) is a non-profit institute supporting education, research and career development for intercultural professionals. It offers seminars, sponsors research, and promotes best practices in intercultural training and education. Its core mission is to encourage the deep forms of learning that come from intercultural experiences and foreign language learning.

Our Learning Mission–A Vision of Edward Hall

Visionary thinker Edward T. Hall (e.g. The Silent Language, 1959) felt that globalization creates challenges and opportunities for humankind. Hall believed that the biggest barrier to deep forms of intercultural understanding is our blindness to how culture shapes our mind and perceptions. Today, research in cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience is shedding new light on how culture shapes fundamental elements of cognition, emotion, and identity. JII’s deep culture seminars are at the cutting edge of adapting the latest insights in mind, brain and education sciences to fulfill Hall’s vision.

JII’s director: Joseph Shaules

Joseph Shaules (PhD) has worked in intercultural education in Japan, Mexico and Europe for more than 25 years. He is a Specially Appointed Professor at Keio University (GIC Program), and teaches at the Tsudajuku University graduate TESOL program. He is also the Japan Specialist for Intercultures, a consulting and training company based in Germany. He is widely published. His books include: Language, Culture and the Embodied Mind (Springer), The Intercultural Mind: Connecting Culture, Cognition and Global Living (Intercultural Press), Identity (Oxford University Press), Deep Culture: The Hidden Challenges of International Living (Multilingual Matters) and Beneath the Surface: The Beginner’s Guide to the Deep Culture Experience. (Intercultural Press) He is proficient in English, Japanese, French and Spanish.

Funding

JII is funded through membership fees and revenue generated by seminars.