In order to clarify the situations in which international graduate students of scienceand technology at a Japanese university interact with Japanese people in their daily andacademic life, we conducted a survey targeting both international graduate students and theJapanese students who study with them in the same laboratory. The results indicated thatinternational graduate students interact with Japanese students while conducting experimentsin a laboratory setting, participating in seminars, and discussing various topics in order tobuild relationships. Furthermore, findings suggest international graduate students stronglyfeel it is necessary to communicate in Japanese even when English is the primary language ofinstruction for university coursework. They also consider conversation skills to be necessaryfor daily interactions on campus. Based on these findings, we constructed a Japanese languagecourse curriculum specifically for science and technology students which reflects the realsituations in which communication occurs. Further development of the course curriculum andenrichment of teaching material will be necessary in the future.