The Global 30 Project, a new Japanese Government initiative that aims to upgrade a number of existing universities to form a select hub of elite universities for receiving and educating international students, has come in for considerable criticism. Using the dual concepts of "kokusaika" (internationalisation) and "gurobaruka" (globalisation), this paper highlights the contradictory goals in a policy that combines a nationalistic "closing in" with a cosmopolitan "opening up". The problems apparent in Japan's most recent attempt to reform higher education are argued to be the latest manifestation of a historical push and pull that can be traced back to the "sakoku" (closed-country) policy of isolation operated during the Edo period. (Contains 2 figures and 5 notes.)