The Impression of Japan Amoung Foreign Students in Japan is not Good

According to an OECD survey, the total number of students studying abroad around the world was approximately 1,900,000 in 2002. Looking at it geographically, the country that accepted by far the greatest number of foreign students was the U.S.A., which took in more than 500,000 students, followed by other Western countries including the UK, Germany, France and Australia. The next on the list was Japan which accepted 100,000 foreign students.

When looking further at where foreign students entering the U.S.A come from (based on a survey carried out by the Institute of International Education in 2003), the majority (79,736) came from India, followed by China (61,765), Korea (52,484) and Japan (40,835). Since visa granting procedures were tightened after 9/11, the number of Chinese and Japanese students going to America decreased from the previous year.

According to a survey of Japan Student Services Organization 2004, the number of foreign students in Japan is 117,000 and looking at this by country of origin, the majority (66.3 percent) come from China, followed by Korea (13.2 percent) and Taiwan (3.5 percent). It is an outstanding characteristic that foreign students in Japan are actually largely composed of Asians, in particular those from China and Korea.

It has been predicted that Asian students will make up 70 percent of all students studying abroad by 2025 and the competition among host countries to attract them will be heavy. China is a major supplier of students to the foreign education market. According to an OECD survey conducted in 2002, among Chinese students studying abroad, 63,211 went to the U.S.A., 41,180 to Japan, 17,483 to the UK, 17,343 studied in France and 14,070 in Germany. It seems an outstanding characteristic that Japan was ranked in second place after the U.S.A. among Western-oriented Chinese students.

Chinese students playing very influential role
China and Japan's relationship is often described as comprising "Cold politics and hot economics." Although political relations between the countries are not particularly good, their economic relationship is excellent. The total amount of trade (imports and exports) is over 22 trillion yen. This amount is now more than the total value of trade between the U.S.A. and Japan which is about 20 trillion yen and China has now become Japan's largest trading partner. The reason many Chinese students want to study in Japan appears to be due to Japan's close proximity to China and the fact that because many Japanese companies are moving into China, Chinese students believe they have more opportunities to find a job. Another reason is considered to be that Japanese universities provide attractive scholarships which lightens the financial burden of overseas study.

However, as brutal crimes by Chinese students have been occurring more frequently in Japan, it has become extremely difficult for Chinese students to obtain visas. Recently, in addition to being required to provide proof of their savings, Chinese students are now required to provide a document showing the sources of their income over the last three years. Before entering a university in Japan, foreign students generally attend a Japanese language school, but in some months last year - due to the very difficult examination - less then 20 percent of applicants were granted visas. This had a major affect on the financial position of many Japanese language schools.

Among many foreign students there is deep dissatisfaction against Japan about who can actually study in the country after getting through all the bureaucratic red tape. One of their gripes is the guarantor system, which adds to the hardships of many foreign students. To rent a room, a deposit should surely be enough, but an additional payment of reiken or "key money" is required in many cases and furthermore, a Japanese guarantor is generally required. This notorious Japanese custom differs from most, if not all international standards and a law to ban this practice should be enacted as soon as possible.

According to answers obtained from Japanese language students conducted at 32 Japanese language schools in 2003, to the question "Do you like Japan?" 38 percent said "I like Japan," four percent replied "I like Japan now although I used to dislike it" and 15 percent said "I dislike Japan now although I used to like it." To the question "Have you experienced discrimination from Japanese?" 35 percent said "yes" and 25 percent said they had on an ongoing basis. Judging replies such as these, it seems that the impression of Japan among foreign students in Japan is not good.

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