Recently-released data suggests that the disasters of March 2011 may have speeded up the decline in student numbers from China, Korea and Taiwan, traditionally the top source markets for Japanese higher education. The Association for the Promotion of Japanese Language Education surveyed 451 member Japanese language schools to find out how many applications there were for the term starting in October. Few Japanese universities have their own preparatory Japanese-language courses, so this data is an important indicator of the volume of students planning to progress to university in Japan.

Applications from China, which had already fallen 11per cent in 2010, dropped a further 36 per cent to 5,720 in October 2011, regaining some ground this year but remaining considerably below the 2010 level. Meanwhile, applications from Korea, which had dropped 41 per cent between 2008 and 2010, plummeted another 55 per cent to just 661 in 2011, and fell a further 10 per cent this year. Taiwanese applications, which had grown 18 per cent in 2010, shrank by 24 per cent in 2011 and again by 26 per cent this year.

There is some consolation in the growth of new markets. Applications from Vietnam, which had been growing steadily for some years, shot up an astonishing 251 per cent this year to reach 1,559, moving Vietnam from fourth to second place in terms of language student applications. Similarly, applications from Nepal have more than doubled over the last two years. However, these trends may be of limited use to Japanese universities, as students from Vietnam and Nepal often study at vocational colleges, and applications are likely to have been encouraged by more favourable rules concerning work by students at such colleges which were introduced to tempt students back to Japan after the disasters.

Some universities are searching for “the next China”, but others are realising that it is important to diversify their source markets further. Top universities are also increasingly aware that internationalisation goes beyond student recruitment to research exchange and collaborative projects with industry. We are holding several events both to encourage student exchange between Japan and the UK, such as the Experience Japan Exhibition in London and the Global Skills symposium in Tokyo, and also to lay the groundwork for wider collaboration, such as our partnership with the Business-University Forum of Japan to invite UK speakers.