Cram school operator Eikoh Inc. said Friday it has acquired Shane English School to strengthen its English-language education for elementary school children ahead of the planned compulsory teaching of the language for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Eikoh, based in the Kanto region, didn't disclose how much it paid for the acquisition of shares in the four operating companies that run the English school chain, which mainly operates in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Representatives of both Eikoh and Shane English School said the acquisition won't involve personnel cuts or other drastic changes in operations.
Shane English School, a British English school owned by Saxoncourt Holdings, Ltd. based in the British Virgin Islands, operates 199 branches across the Kanto region, of which 46 are franchised.
The four operating companies that run Shane English School are Shane Corporation Japan Inc., Shane Corporation Kita Kanto Inc., Shane Corporation Higashi Kanto Inc. and Shane Corporation Minami Kanto Inc. Besides providing English lessons, Shane offers Chinese classes as well as overseas study programs.
Hiroyuki Otsubo of Eikoh's business management division said one reason for the buyout was Eikoh's desire to strengthen its English-teaching operations in time for the planned implementation in 2011 of English as a compulsory subject in elementary schools.
Otsubo said Eikoh has no plans to change the number of teachers working for Shane English School and its roughly 20,000 students will continue receiving the same services.
Eikoh operates 380 cram schools and has 67,000 students. A press release from Eikoh said that in the Tokyo area, Shane already holds 60 percent of its classes in the same location as classes hosted by Eikoh.
Takehiko Kikuchi, a PR representative for Shane English School, said company employees and teachers received the news calmly.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101120a2.html
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Home Schooling: Fewer Japanese Head to U.S. Universities
Japanese students are increasingly content on staying put in the classroom – at home.
The number of Japanese students who enrolled in U.S. universities dropped a whopping 15% for the 2009 academic year, following a 14% fall off the previous year, according to a report released this week. It was one of the biggest country declines noted.
The Japanese student population in the U.S. declined to 24,842 this year, or approximately 4,400 fewer students compared to 2008, according to an annual study by the Institute of International Education.
The survey results come in stark contrast to the deluge of students sent from Asian neighbors China, India and South Korea. Overall foreign student numbers increased 3% to almost 691,000 for the 2009 school year, driven by a charge of students from China. Chinese student enrollment soared 30% to an estimated 128,000 students, comprising 18% of the total international student population, the highest percentage of any country. India and South Korea followed in suit, making up 15% and 10%, respectively. Japan, on the other hand, accounted for 3.6% of the population slice.
The report’s findings reinforce a growing trend among a younger Japanese generation that is keener on staying home – a similar tenor pervading the work force. It is a troubling concern for Japan in what is yet another symptom of the “Galapagos syndrome” afflicting the country — where a complacent Japan is increasingly looking inward while rival countries are globalizing at a clipped pace. According to the IIE, the number of students from Japan studying in the U.S. has tumbled by nearly half from a decade earlier. The first double digit decrease occurred for the 2003 academic year when the student population fell 11.2% to 40,835.
And Japan likely won’t be shocked by the results. The Japanese media was horrified to realize there would only be one student from Japan in the 2010 freshman class at Harvard University when the Ivy League school’s president visited Japan in March. There were only five Japanese students studying at the university’s undergraduate college as of November 2009, about one-seventh and one-eighth of the number of enrolled Chinese and South Korean students, respectively. Japan’s presence at Columbia University, the fifth leading host college of foreign students, has been shrinking as well. The number of students enrolled in the New York City-based university fell to 237 students in 2009, down from 413 just six years earlier.
Studying abroad is “usually not considered as a legitimate or realistic path – both at the macro-social level and at the individual level,” said Yoshitaka Yamamoto, a member of the U.S. College Alumni Network of Japan, a non-profit organization that informs Japanese students of overseas education options, explaining Japan’s ebbing interest. Mr. Yamamoto, who graduated from Harvard in 2008, said few Japanese high schools “actively encourage” students to look at colleges overseas primarily because high school ratings are based on matriculation statistics to top domestic universities like Tokyo University and Kyoto University.
Then there is the sticky issue of what happens after graduation. Fearful that a diploma from overseas is less valuable compared to one imprinted with the name of a Japanese university parents are weary of how time abroad could handicap their children’s career prospects.
“That is because, presumably, most Japanese employers traditionally did not reward prospective new grad hires with an extensive overseas experience,” said Mr. Yamamoto.
Worried that a lack of exposure to the U.S., a key Japanese ally, will inevitably cloud future views of the relationship, not to mention the reason behind the heavy U.S. military presence in Japan, the government announced a series of initiatives to increase the flow of Japanese students and others sent to the U.S. The new measures aim to launch several thousand exchanges over the next five years, said Prime Minister Naoto Kan following his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation last weekend.
Moves by Japanese companies like Rakuten to adopt a more global mindset may make U.S. universities more attractive, easing post-graduation anxieties, said Mr. Yamamoto.
And Japanese students already studying abroad are eager for more company.
“We very much enjoy having the Japanese students who already are part of the Harvard community, but they told me that they wished more of their compatriots came to study here,” said Harvard University President Drew Faust in an emailed statement to JRT, speaking about her trip to Japan earlier this year “They asked me to carry that message to Japan, and I was happy to do so.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11/18/home-schooling-fewer-japanese-head-to-us-universities/
The number of Japanese students who enrolled in U.S. universities dropped a whopping 15% for the 2009 academic year, following a 14% fall off the previous year, according to a report released this week. It was one of the biggest country declines noted.
The Japanese student population in the U.S. declined to 24,842 this year, or approximately 4,400 fewer students compared to 2008, according to an annual study by the Institute of International Education.
The survey results come in stark contrast to the deluge of students sent from Asian neighbors China, India and South Korea. Overall foreign student numbers increased 3% to almost 691,000 for the 2009 school year, driven by a charge of students from China. Chinese student enrollment soared 30% to an estimated 128,000 students, comprising 18% of the total international student population, the highest percentage of any country. India and South Korea followed in suit, making up 15% and 10%, respectively. Japan, on the other hand, accounted for 3.6% of the population slice.
The report’s findings reinforce a growing trend among a younger Japanese generation that is keener on staying home – a similar tenor pervading the work force. It is a troubling concern for Japan in what is yet another symptom of the “Galapagos syndrome” afflicting the country — where a complacent Japan is increasingly looking inward while rival countries are globalizing at a clipped pace. According to the IIE, the number of students from Japan studying in the U.S. has tumbled by nearly half from a decade earlier. The first double digit decrease occurred for the 2003 academic year when the student population fell 11.2% to 40,835.
And Japan likely won’t be shocked by the results. The Japanese media was horrified to realize there would only be one student from Japan in the 2010 freshman class at Harvard University when the Ivy League school’s president visited Japan in March. There were only five Japanese students studying at the university’s undergraduate college as of November 2009, about one-seventh and one-eighth of the number of enrolled Chinese and South Korean students, respectively. Japan’s presence at Columbia University, the fifth leading host college of foreign students, has been shrinking as well. The number of students enrolled in the New York City-based university fell to 237 students in 2009, down from 413 just six years earlier.
Studying abroad is “usually not considered as a legitimate or realistic path – both at the macro-social level and at the individual level,” said Yoshitaka Yamamoto, a member of the U.S. College Alumni Network of Japan, a non-profit organization that informs Japanese students of overseas education options, explaining Japan’s ebbing interest. Mr. Yamamoto, who graduated from Harvard in 2008, said few Japanese high schools “actively encourage” students to look at colleges overseas primarily because high school ratings are based on matriculation statistics to top domestic universities like Tokyo University and Kyoto University.
Then there is the sticky issue of what happens after graduation. Fearful that a diploma from overseas is less valuable compared to one imprinted with the name of a Japanese university parents are weary of how time abroad could handicap their children’s career prospects.
“That is because, presumably, most Japanese employers traditionally did not reward prospective new grad hires with an extensive overseas experience,” said Mr. Yamamoto.
Worried that a lack of exposure to the U.S., a key Japanese ally, will inevitably cloud future views of the relationship, not to mention the reason behind the heavy U.S. military presence in Japan, the government announced a series of initiatives to increase the flow of Japanese students and others sent to the U.S. The new measures aim to launch several thousand exchanges over the next five years, said Prime Minister Naoto Kan following his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation last weekend.
Moves by Japanese companies like Rakuten to adopt a more global mindset may make U.S. universities more attractive, easing post-graduation anxieties, said Mr. Yamamoto.
And Japanese students already studying abroad are eager for more company.
“We very much enjoy having the Japanese students who already are part of the Harvard community, but they told me that they wished more of their compatriots came to study here,” said Harvard University President Drew Faust in an emailed statement to JRT, speaking about her trip to Japan earlier this year “They asked me to carry that message to Japan, and I was happy to do so.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11/18/home-schooling-fewer-japanese-head-to-us-universities/
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