A Japanese Cabinet Office report based on a public opinion survey on education conducted in December 2015 shows that 84.2% of the adult population in Japan think their children or young people in general need to study abroad. The survey asked what support they would need and 72.5% responded more financial support, followed by 52.9% enhanced support system for study abroad by schools and universities and 43.2% increased study abroad programmes arranged with overseas schools and universities.

However, there seems to be significant gaps between the existing financial support and the needs of students. Nikkei, one of the major Japanese newspapers, recently reported that the Japanese government’s flagship funding scheme, the TOBITATE Ryugaku Scholarship has seen a drop in the number of applications and successful applicants. This may be due to the strict application requirements and the way the scheme was promoted, highlighting the innovativeness and uniqueness as one of the most important selection criteria.

In response to this, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan has taken some measures to encourage more students to apply for the scholarships. It has now lowered the financial bars for university students, and opened up the scholarships for study in language schools for senior high school students. Even more significantly, MEXT now actively seeks support from study abroad agents and has listed selected study abroad agents on their promotional web page. As a result, the number of applications for the latest cycle of recruitment for senior high school students has tripled.

Against this background, Japanese study abroad agents are now proactively working with overseas institutions to develop programmes that meet the requirements of the scholarships, especially those aimed at senior high school students. UK institutions, especially English language teaching providers, which offer courses for those under 18 are strongly recommended to strengthen networks with agents in order to capitalise on this financial support.