The study on which this article is based aimed to discover the meanings of international education at the high school level from the perspective of students and parents in Japan and Indonesia. Two research questions are addressed: How do Indonesia and Japan balance their international education policy in relation to the need to foster globally competent workers, global citizenship, and nation-building? What are the respective meanings of international education for students and parents? A policy analysis was undertaken based on documents as well as class observations, and individual and group interviews with international education students and parents. The study found that while both the Indonesian and Japanese governments have attempted to build human capital with global competence and national identity, they have utilized different strategies. While Indonesian and Japanese students and parents found similar meanings in university preparation, there were different meanings regarding national language usage, social responsibility, self-identification, life after university, and neo-colonialism.