Education for Multicultural Society in the Global Age - Promoting Active Communication with Different Communities in Japan-

This study bases on the idea that promoting active communication and mutual understanding with different communities should meet the aims of education preparing the young people for multicultural society in the global age. In this paper, an experimental lesson for students at the University of Fukui implemented in the spring term of 2006 will be described. In the lesson Japanese students were encouraged to communicate with overseas students. Some key findings from the questionnaires distributed to explore issues and effectiveness of the lesson indicate that there is a lack of understanding of different communities and preparing the young people to live in multicultural society is one of the significant issues for countries like Japan where consisted of mono-cultural society for a long time