Japan is in the middle of a huge inbound tourism surge, but not everyone from overseas who’s getting off a plane at Haneda, Kansai, or one of the country’s other international airports is here for sightseeing. Some of them are here for academics, and a recent study shows that Japan has hit a record-high number of foreign students in the country.
The Japan Student Services Organization, which assists both foreign students wishing to study in Japan as well as Japanese students looking to study abroad, has just released the results of its most recently completed Study on the Enrollment Status of Foreign Students, which examines data collected in 2024.
According to the study, as of May 1, 2024, Japan had 336,708 foreign students studying in the country at the post-high school level. This is a huge increase, 20.6 percent, from the preceding year, and the largest number of foreign students for Japan since the current classification of foreign students, which includes students at language schools, was adopted in 2011. It’s also more than double the number of foreign students in Japan since such statistics began being collected in 1983.
Of those 336,708 students, the largest portion, 107,241, are attending classes in Japan at schools teaching the Japanese language to non-native learners, an 18.2 percent increase from the year before. University students account for 87,421 people (up 8.8 percent) and graduate program students 58,215 people (up 4.8 percent). The largest proportional increases came from the 76,402 foreign students at specialized schools focused on specific trades or industries (up 64,9 percent) and the 3,265 foreign students at junior colleges (up 67 percent).
As for where these students are hailing from, the top five countries of origin are all in Asia, with China’s 123,486 people making up more than a third of the international student body in Japan. The number of students in Japan from the top four countries all increased compared to the previous year, while the number from Korea dropped by 367.
● Number of foreign students in Japan by home country
- China: 123,485 (36.7 percent of total)
- Nepal: 64,816 (19.2 percent)
- Vietnam: 40,323 (12 percent)
- Myanmar: 16,596 (4.9 percent)
- Korea: 14,579 (4.9 percent)
Among English-speaking countries, the largest contingent came from the U.S.A., which ranked 11th overall, followed by the U.K., Canada, and Australia.
- U.S.A.: 3,918 students (1.2 percent of total)
- U.K.: 953 (0.3 percent)
- Canada: 598 (0.2 percent)
- Australia: 472 (0.1 percent)
So what’s causing the foreign student population boom in Japan? A number of factors. For starters, just like the weak yen is making Japan an invitingly affordable vacation destination, it’s also making it an attractive country for those with overseas savings or parental support to get a quality education at a manageable price, especially once living expenses are factored in. Several universities and trade schools in Japan have begun actively courting foreign students for enrollment, and Japanese companies have become more open to hiring non-Japanese staff, making starting in language school to build a foundation of communication skills, progressing to university/trade school, and then becoming a working adult in Japan a viable academic and career path. And with many Japanese companies making renewed pushes to establish their presence overseas, even foreign students who return to their home countries can benefit from having studied in Japan and being able to communicate regarding topics in their professional field.
Those factors may or may not end up being permanent, but they’re unlikely to change anytime in the very near future, so odds are that record number of 336,708 foreign students in Japan will be broken again when the Japan Student Services Organization does its tally for next year’s report.
Source: Japan Student Services Organization, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Number of foreigners working in Japan hits all-time high, 25 percent come from same country
-- The Tokyo area welcomed more new foreign residents than Japanese ones last year
-- Japanese prime minster wants to increase the number of foreigners studying in Japan
© SoraNews24
11 Comments
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TokyoLiving
Good for Japan's economy..
Foreign students, behave well..
sakurasuki
Welcome to Japan to those foreign students, where key money and other made up initial cost are waiting for them. Also wait for pension services that trying to collect money, even when those students are not working at all.
kurisupisu
It’s clear to see that students from 3rd world countries form the overwhelming majority coming to Japan to receive basic language training.They will then head out for some menial job in the countryside of Japan to be housed in a dormitory where any type of cultural exchange with the natives is unlikely.
Several years later they leave and the process is repeated with a fresh batch…
sakurasuki
While Japan Inc and Japan Govt, will get their money through various taxes, insurance and pension. At the same time get their youth energy by overworking them everyday.
upintheair
It’s a good way to carry out immigration without getting the consent of the population. Just surreptitiously through schools or other programs. Ultimately, the voting population rarely knows what’s best for the country. It’s good to let them think there is a democracy but ultimately the government should do as it see fit. Good to see more foreign students bringing their culture and values and ultimately their families here, forever to change Japan into something better. Japan will improve by looking a little bit more like China, Nepal, and Vietnam. Because no country is good without immigration. The UK got considerably better for example.
Simon Foston
upintheairToday 09:46 am JST
Hope there are no Daily Mail-reading gammons reading that. They'd choke on their roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
Simon Foston
TokyoLivingToday 07:47 am JST
What's that supposed to mean? Are you insinuating that they don't? Do you think people in other countries don't learn about things like good manners, orderly conduct, respecting different cultures and values, and following the law?
Mr Kipling
How many are getting financial aid from the Japanese government? Money that should be going to Japanese students.
How many of those "enrolled" in language schools are really here to work?
John
US universities are not good for foreigners anymore. Japan can be an alternative if some basic human rights issues, or restrictions are lifted from foreigners such as renting, opening a bank account.
WA4TKG
They’re all going to learn, the HARD way, what the REAL Japan is like.
gsa
So now the foreign students are the problem even though vast majority of them from other East Asian nations.
Previously it was tourists.
Even before that, the problem was number of foreigners living in Japan.
Let's name it, there is absolutely no room for non-japanese in Japan. They only allow a fraction number of people to avoid being openly labeled you-know-what.
I know China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore etc all have a similar attitudes. This is generally how the culture of East Asia is hard wired.