[The Epoch Times, March 04, 2024](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times reporter Xia Yu) The Japanese government will lift the cap on tuition fees for foreign students next month. By then, Japanese universities are expected to increase tuition fees for foreign students. Among foreign students in Japan, Chinese students account for the largest proportion.
Standard tuition at Japan’s 86 national universities is set at 535,800 yen ($3,500) per year, but schools are allowed to increase it by up to 20%, to a whopping 642,960 yen. Currently, the fees for domestic students and international students in Japan are the same.
Nikkei reported on March 4 that Japan’s Ministry of Education will amend university tuition fees regulations in March to remove tuition fees for foreign students. The move is expected to prompt many schools to raise fees to improve the learning experience for overseas students.
Public and private universities supported by local governments could also follow suit.
Universities in Japan offer special support to foreign students, such as Japanese language courses, assistance with writing reports in Japanese, and student accommodation, which adds to student fees.
In the United States, tuition fees for foreign students are about 50% higher than for domestic students, while in Canada the gap is about 100%, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. But universities in the United States and Canada offer well-equipped student dormitories to foreign students who are willing to pay the high cost of education.
The Japanese government strives to increase the number of foreign students to 400,000 by 2033, an increase of 30% from 2019. But there is still a gap compared with universities in European and American countries. The proportion of foreign students at the University of Tokyo is about 2%, which is far behind the 24% at the University of Cambridge and 12% at Harvard University.
according toEmbassy of Japan in ChinaAccording to statistics, there are approximately 290,000 international students from all over the world in Japan every year. Among the 290,000 people, about 110,000 are Chinese, accounting for about 38%.
However, according to a survey report by the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), an independent administrative agency, the total number of international students from various countries in Japan in 2022 is 231,146. The top five countries are China, Vietnam, Nepal, South Korea and Indonesia. China ranks first with an overwhelming number of 103,882 people, accounting for almost half of the total number. Vietnam, which ranks second, only has about 40,000 people.
After the COVID-19 epidemic, a large number of students from Asian countries chose to study in Japan.
Editor in charge: Gao Jing#
