In Japan in recent years, there has been much discussion of the need for global human resources alongside criticism of Japanese youth as having an "inward-looking" ("uchimuki") orientation. Drawing out the contradictions apparent in a youth apparently reluctant to leave Japan and companies, universities and government seemingly desperate to nurture and attract global talent, this paper frames the "uchimuki" discourse as a cover for an insular Japan and its failure to attract and foster "global human resources". As such, the two discourses shed a great deal of light on Japan's complex relationship with globalisation.