Japan aims to increase its number of international students, which had declined due to COVID-19 and related border controls, to the pre-pandemic level of 300,000 by 2027, up from the current 240,000.
The education ministry revealed the timeline in a report submitted Wednesday to an internal panel that advises the minister.
According to the Japan Student Services Organization, there were 312,214 foreign students in Japan in May 2019, but the figure had declined to 242,444 by May 2021, the latest period for which data is available.
“Because foreign students were unable to enter Japan for a period of time, the percentage of (foreign students) getting a job in Japan also declined, significantly affecting the country’s ability to secure talented workers,” the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said in the report.
The number of foreign students dropped sharply after Japan shut its borders to new entries, including foreign students who already had a visa, at the beginning of the pandemic. Some switched to universities in other countries such as South Korea, while others simply gave up.
In March of this year, Japan slowly began to let international students in as the country neared the end of its sixth COVID-19 wave.
In order to achieve a recovery in the number of international students, the ministry plans to rework its strategy on the regions from which it will seek to attract students and their fields of study. A survey of Japanese businesses showed that they are lacking engineers specialized in mechanical engineering, electricity, communications and networks, hardware and software programming, and civil engineering.
It is also planning to strengthen promotional campaigns for educational institutions in cooperation with representatives of Japanese universities abroad, and reinforce alumni networks to aid the recruitment of new students.
The ministry will enhance opportunities for the students to improve their Japanese-language skills, and will increase support for those seeking employment after graduation.
The report also showed that the number of Japanese students studying abroad has plunged due to the pandemic, from 115,146 in the fiscal year beginning April 2019 to 1,487 in fiscal 2021.
The ministry will make efforts to have at least 100,000 Japanese nationals studying abroad in 2027, targeting not only college students but also high school students.
