Japan has become the one of the leading destinations for international students due to the strong economic background as well as the highly sophisticated educational system. Number of students have increased each year and government is also supporting this trend to foster the people to people contact as well as to promote the better understanding of Japanese culture. There were just 10,482 foreign students in 1983 and within the next 27 years it rose to 141,774 in 2010 (Source: JASSO 2010). This is about the 14 times than the early one.
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| Figure 1: International students in Japan as of 2010 |
Figure 1 shows the number of foreign students in Japan by origin. Chinese students are overwhelmingly high (60.80%) followed by Koreans (South Koreans) and Taiwanese. This may due to the long cultural and historical affinities between these counties. Another advantage for three above mentioned students is the ease of understanding the Japanese language compared to other international students as Khanjis are basically originated in China and Japanese language uses lots of Khanji in study and day to day life. Though Koreans use Hangul script now, it is also derived from Khanji like Hiragana and Katakana scripts in Japanese. Life is easier who understands the Japanese language. By number of students Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Indonesia, Nepal and Bangladesh ranks 4th to 10th respectively. These 10 countries account the 90% volume of all international students. It is interesting to note that Nepal ranks 9th in this rank. As of 2010 A.D. 1829 Nepali students are currently studying in Japan in different language school, universities and technical institutes. The number has increased from 1628 in 2009 (0.1% increase). This positive change may be increasing number of students enrolling in the language school as Japanese language and culture has become a popular in Nepal.
Formally Japan was the first overseas country where Nepali government sent its 8 students for higher studies 100 years ago. When they returned home they not only brought new wealth of knowledge but also the new species to Nepal like persimmon. With the diplomatic relation in 1950's, Japan Nepal relationship have crossed a very high niche in the last 50 years. It can be hoped that with more people to people contact the relationship is expected to foster in new height. Nepali students studying in Japan will be the best ambassadors of Japan in this regard.
Formally Japan was the first overseas country where Nepali government sent its 8 students for higher studies 100 years ago. When they returned home they not only brought new wealth of knowledge but also the new species to Nepal like persimmon. With the diplomatic relation in 1950's, Japan Nepal relationship have crossed a very high niche in the last 50 years. It can be hoped that with more people to people contact the relationship is expected to foster in new height. Nepali students studying in Japan will be the best ambassadors of Japan in this regard.
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