Popularity of learning Japanese growing overseas
Japanese-language study is growing in popularity overseas every year, especially in East Asia, driven by interest in animation and the desire to find work in Japan.
According to a 2006 survey by the Japan Foundation, Japanese was being taught in 133 countries and territories throughout the world to an estimated 2.98 million people, an increase of 26.4 percent from three years before.
Since 1984, when the foundation started the Japanese-language proficiency test for non-native speakers, the number of people taking the test has gone up every year. That first year, the number was 7,000. By 2008 it had grown to some 560,000, half of them Chinese and 20 percent South Korean.
"Japanese enterprises contracting out data processing and other jobs to China are increasing in light of inexpensive labor costs, and even limited Japanese-language skills can become an advantage in the workplace," said an official at ALC Press Inc., a Tokyo publisher of Japanese-language learning materials.
Andi Lukito, 24, from Indonesia, decided to study in Japan because he liked "Sazae-san" and "Doraemon" cartoons when he was in junior high.
Some companies are turning their eye on foreign students and Lukito was recruited in April by Lawson Inc. as a full-time employee.
The convenience store chain started actively recruiting foreign students in 2008. Of 122 university graduates hired this year, 39 are from other countries, mostly in Asia.
"In the convenience store industry, the advantage is how many people with new ideas there are," a Lawson public relations official said.
"The popularity of Japan's pop culture, such as comic books and animation, is contributing to increases in the number of Japanese-language learners," an education ministry official said.
However, foreign students make up only 3.3 percent of the student bodies at Japan's universities, compared with 25 percent in Britain and Australia, and 10 percent in Germany and France.
The Chinese and South Korean governments have been making strenuous efforts in other parts of Asia to increase the number of learners of their languages. The Japanese government has been trying to do the same, but it has not been as successful. There are currently 120,000 international students in Japan and the government is trying to boost the number to 300,000 in 2020.
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source: japan times