On April 27 local time, the Japanese government held a meeting of the Council for Creating the Future of Education and compiled its second set of proposals to restore the number of inbound and outbound international students, which had plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposals set targets of 500,000 Japanese students studying abroad and 400,000 international students coming to Japan by 2033. To achieve this goal, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) will roll out incentives such as expanding university exchange quotas.

According to Japan’s Kyodo News, under the new targets, Japanese universities and Japanese language schools will be able to accommodate 380,000 international students, and high schools another 20,000, by 2033. Meanwhile, the government aims to have 150,000 Japanese students pursue long-term overseas study, 230,000 take part in medium-and short-term exchange programmes abroad, and 120,000 study at foreign high schools by 2033.

The proposals state that to boost both inbound and outbound student mobility, the share of domestic universities offering exchange programmes will be raised from the current 48% to 80%. In addition, online visa application procedures will be promoted as one measure to expand student numbers. At an earlier meeting, MEXT proposed expanding subsidised scholarships for university students. Starting in 2024, around 200,000 non-only children from middle-income households will be eligible for the subsidies.

Back in 2019, the Japanese government launched the “300,000 International Students Plan”. However, the number of international students in Japan dropped sharply to 230,000 in 2022 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By growing its international student population, Japan hopes to attract more overseas students to study and settle in the country, so as to supplement its workforce and talent pool and tackle the continuous labour shortage caused by the low birth rate.