The Path to Becoming a Resident Assistant at a Japanese University

Abstract

Resident Assistants (RAs) are a mainstay of many universities worldwide that offer accommodation to visiting students. They look after both the administrative side and, more importantly, the emotional side of ensuring visiting students, including students from other countries, fit primarily into the university accommodation, and also the host culture as a whole. With an increase in the number of foreign students coming to Japan, it has become necessary at hosting universities to employ RAs at university-provided accommodation for non-Japanese students. This qualitative study used interview data from three RAs employed at a university in Tokyo and inductively produced six sub-headings of data. The aim of the study is to find out motivations for becoming an RA and participants' perceptions prior to and during their jobs as RAs.