Erasmus in Japanese

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2 april 2012 | The government in Japan tackles low student mobility by investing around ¥6 billion (€54 million) into an Erasmus-like scheme. Too few Japanese students go abroad which many fear is leading to a culture of introversion undermining the country’s competiveness.

Japan, the world’s third largest economy, struggles with greatchallenges in higher education. One issue, the aging population,has already led to a decline in graduate quality among many low andmid-tier universities. At the same time, the country features amainly inward looking population highlighted by low studentmobility rates.

Now, a big Japanese newspaper reported that the government will investaround ¥6 billion (€54 million) in 5 year grants supportingstudents going abroad. In the recent years, the number of Japanesestudents spending their studies abroad has declined from 82,000 in2004 to 59,000 in 2009, a decrease of 28%.

Japan’s mobility slumps, global mobilityrises

Experts fear that “unless this trend is reversed, Japan’sinternational competitiveness and awareness of other countries andcultures will continue to suffer.” This phenomenon stands in starkcontrast to what is going on in Japan’s neighboring countries likeChina and South Korea. There, outward and inward student numbersare on the rise. On a global scale, researchers expect foreignstudent enrolment to grow to over 8 million by 2025, up from 2.1million in 2002.