No. of Japanese language learners rises to record 290,000 in Japan
The number of Japanese language learners in Japan reached a record 294,198 last year, a recent government survey showed, underscoring the need to offer more learning opportunities to cope with rising demand from foreign residents, Kyodo reports.
About two-thirds of the total were foreign students, with people from China making up the largest portion in the survey targeting 2,669 facilities as of November 2024.
The total number rose 31,028 from the previous survey in 2023, meaning that Japan has seen a nearly five-fold increase from its 1990 level, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said.
The number of Japanese language learners has recovered from a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, Japan has been accepting more foreign workers to cope with labor shortages at home, though the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October, is reviewing the country's policies on foreigners.
The survey targeted universities, government-certified language schools, municipalities and private-sector companies offering Japanese lessons.
It also found Japanese classes were not offered for foreign nationals in 38.2 percent of the 1,892 covered areas nationwide, except for those targeting students.
Besides students who make up the largest portion of learners, the remainder included people residing in Japan for work, accompanying family members, and those receiving training under the government's program to transfer skills.
By countries and regions, 78,821 came from China, followed by 45,821 from Nepal and 33,547 from Vietnam.
Despite the increase, the survey found of the total 50,309 teachers, most were volunteers, with only 13.6 percent working full-time.
Some municipalities face a real challenge to provide foreign residents access to Japanese language education, as there are 170,455 such people living in so-called "empty" places, which lack classes for nonstudents.
Hyogo Prefecture in western Japan was the only municipality among the country's 47 that had no such areas.
Conversely, the percentage of areas with no learning facilities was high in prefectures such as Okinawa at 80.5 percent, Tottori at 73.7 percent and Hokkaido at 70.7 percent.
Earlier, Qazinform reported that learning languages may keep the brain young, according to a recent study.