Published papers

Garden managers face the dilemma of promoting and preserving their gardens. Overtourism in popular gardens can be solved by cooperating to entice visitors to alternative, less popular gardens. However, such an enticement strategy may not be successful because garden managers not only cooperate with but also compete against each other (i.e., coopetition). How can garden management practitioners forge a coopetitive relationship to encourage visitors to move from over- to less crowded gardens? Addressing this question, this study aimed to propose a successful coopetitive strategy to redistribute visitors. This study was drawn primarily from semi-structured interviews with garden staff of an overcrowded national garden and multiple less crowded metropolitan gardens. A thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed a lack of cooperation between national and metropolitan gardens and highlighted the former’s aspirations for further growth despite perceived overtourism. This study proposes using the ambiguous cultural status of national and metropolitan gardens as a catalyst for coopetition between them, and contributes to the discourse on sustainable cultural tourism by broadening its scope and redressing the scholarly imbalance between an overemphasis on visitors’ behaviour and a dearth of attention on practitioners of (horti)cultural tourism. Theoretical contributions are detailed at the end of this article.

This study investigated Japanese students’ perceived learning outcomes from a short-term program jointly conducted by the University of Tokyo and Asian University for Women in Bangladesh through the lens of intercultural competence and the contact hypothesis. Qualitative data were derived primarily from Japanese students’ essays. Inductive analysis revealed that intergroup interactions enhanced Japanese students’ awareness of social inequalities, diverse ethnic identities, prevailing stereotypes against the Global South, their own privilege, and Japan’s colonial legacy. This study makes theoretical contributions by illuminating the potential for inappropriate and ineffective interactions with outgroup peers. These findings suggest that educators should create environments where learners feel safe in making communicative mistakes and avoid hastily developing learners’ intercultural competence.