Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hopes to attract a total of 400,000 international students over the next 10 years as part of the economic recovery strategy that aims to increase more visitors to the country following the ill effects of the pandemic.
The prime minister recognizes that amid fierce global competition, Japan must accept more skilled workers and international students from different countries if it wants to strengthen economic growth.
Aside from attracting thousands of international students in the next decade, the government also wants to have a total of 500,000 of their very own students studying abroad. The plan was shared during a meeting of the Council for the Creation of Future Education.
Back in 2018, Japan’s Ministry of Education aimed to take in about 300,000 international students by 2020. It achieved its goal a year early as the country hosted a total of 312,214.
Unfortunately, that number dropped during the pandemic because of strict travel restrictions.
In 2021, a survey showed that there were only 242,444 foreign students living in Japan, most of them from China, Vietnam, Nepal, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
“Japan will relax border control measures to be on par with the U.S.,” said Kishida, who added that the influx of international students was returning to pre-pandemic levels.
