3 mil. students taking Japanese classes overseas

Nearly 3 million people were studying the Japanese language in 133 countries and territories worldwide as of 2006, up more than 25 percent from three years earlier, according to a survey conducted by the Japan Foundation.

The organization, one of whose main duties is to promote Japanese-language education overseas, last week released the data from its latest survey, conducted between November last year and March this year. It has been conducting surveys of this kind since 1979--initially every five years but now every three years beginning from the latest one.

For the survey, the Japan Foundation sent questionnaire sheets to about 27,000 educational institutions worldwide, of which 75 percent responded. It found that there were 2,979,820 students of the Japanese language overseas last year, about 23 times larger than the student number in 1979.

The government has been aiming at increasing the number of students of the Japanese language to 3 million by 2010. The Japan Foundation's latest survey shows that the goal has almost been achieved.

By nation and territory, South Korea topped the list with about 910,000 students, followed by China and Australia with about 680,000 and 370,000, respectively. The number of students in these three countries accounted for about two-thirds of the total figure.

Compared to the 2003 survey, 95 countries and territories saw increases in the number of students of Japanese.

On the other hand, 31 countries and territories showed the opposite trend--with Australia and the United States among them. The United States, the sixth highest country in terms of the number of students, had a 15.9 percent decrease.

The organization guesses that behind such decreases, there is an increasing popularity for learning other languages such as Chinese and Spanish.

Of the 3 million, nearly 60 percent were students at the primary and secondary school level, while about 25 percent were studying at higher educational institutions. About 490,000 were taught at other institutions outside the formal education system, such as language schools in the private sectors. This was an increase of nearly 70 percent from the 2003 survey.

"This is a new phenomenon that is occurring," said Katsumi Kakazu, a Japan Foundation official who led the survey.

Nowadays, there is a greater variety of available methods for learning languages other than attending traditional classroom lessons, such as using the Internet, but the survey could not cover such individuals.

"[Sending the questionnaire sheets to relevant organizations] was a primitive but steady approach. The survey shows that there were 'at least' 3 million people studying Japanese worldwide," he said. "We'd like to find a way to cover students learning by various other methods in the future."
(Nov. 8, 2007)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20071108TDY14001.htm