The Japanese government is aiming to attract a total of 400,000 international students by 2033. The country faced a setback in 2022, due to which they experienced a decline in student numbers. In 2022, there were a total of 231,146 international students, reflecting a decrease of 4.7 percent. Additionally, it showcases the lowest enrollment number in about ten years.
It has been observed that the majority of students enrolled at the universities were undergraduates (72,047). This represents a drop of 2.3 percent from 2021, which earlier stood at 73,715, as per the survey by the Japan Student Services Organisation, JASSO.
The survey further reveals that most of the students in Japan come from China, Vietnam, Nepal, Korea, and Indonesia. All these nations experienced a sharp drop in sending students to Japan between 2021 and 2022, except Nepal, which saw an increase of 29 percent.
In 2022, Japan hosted 12,064 fewer students than those from Vietnam. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been observed that a sharp decline has been noticed in international student enrollment.
Before the pandemic, in 2019, a total of 310,000 international students were in Japan, but it has experienced a decrease since then.
Following this decline, the Japanese government aims to host more international students in the upcoming years. The main aim is to reach the pre-pandemic level. Additionally, the Japanese government set a new goal of enrolling 400,000 international students by 2033. Apart from this, the government wishes to increase the number of Japanese students abroad.
Japanese national universities also intend to increase the tuition fees for international students since the government removed the cap on increasing such charges next month.
