Paul Snowden's appointment as a dean to the School of International Liberal Studies at Waseda University was considered so unusual that he compared it to the first moonwalk. Snowden's new position was the highest position reached by a non-Japanese at Waseda, Japan's top private university. Waseda's embrace of foreigners is still considered an exception to the rule in Japan. While some parts of the Japanese society are slowly opening up for foreigners, universities in Japan remain strikingly homogeneous and isolated from the globalizing trend in higher education. This article examines why Japanese universities continue to feel unwelcoming to foreigners.