This paper looks at the development of two similar academic disciplines in Japan, i.e. firstly practiced comparative education and recently flourishing intercultural education. The major focus of this paper is to analyse how these educational studies have been brought to, and practised in, Japan. Both comparative education and intercultural education are relatively young academic disciplines in the country, and their conceptualisation is still ongoing, as is their methodology and future direction. Despite considerable overlap, it is argued that comparative education--which evolved in the form of investigating nationally framed education--and intercultural education--which focuses on diversity in society beyond national frameworks--have grown differently. It is further argued that the development of both comparative and intercultural education is closely related to Japan's positioning of "self" against the "others" in Japanese history. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)