In 1987, the Japanese government inaugurated the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) programme in response to global pressure to "internationalize" its society. This programme has grown to be a major government operation, with an annual budget of $400 million and more then 6000 foreign nationals employed each year in public schools all over Japan. How does a relatively homogenous and insular society react when a buzzword is suddenly turned into reality? How did the arrival of so many foreigners affect Japan's educational bureaucracy? How did the foreigners themselves feel upon discovering that English teaching was not the primary goal of the programme? This balanced study draws on 10 years of ethnographic research to explore the cultural and political dynamics of internationalization in Japan. It highlights and interprets the misunderstandings of the early years of the programme, traces the culture clashes as all levels of the bureaucracy, and speculates on what lessons the JET programme hold for other multicultural initiatives.