The Japan Student Services Organisation, the independent body established under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) that supports domestic and international students and administers study abroad scholarships, has launched a new study abroad website.
As part of its rejuvenated push to get more students to study overseas, the website includes comprehensive information on studying in different regions of the world, including routes into study in each country and available scholarships.
“The Japanese government makes much of Japanese study abroad in policy recently”
“The Japanese government (the Abe Cabinet) makes much of Japanese study abroad in policy recently,” Takafumi Ota, director of the information services division in JASSO’s student exchange department, told The PIE News.
Increasing student mobility, both inbound and outbound, is a key component of Prime Minister Abe’s ‘Abeducation’ initiative and the website launch leads on from a study abroad promotional campaign by MEXT in December 2013.
According to recently released MEXT figures, Japanese students studying abroad increased by 4.6% between 2011 and 2012 to 45,082, the first increase since 2004.
While JASSO has previously provided information for foreigners interested in studying in Japan, there was little focus on outbound study, said Ota.
“In the category ‘Studying Abroad’, you can find information about study in Japan for foreigners without problems; however, it used to be rather difficult for Japanese students to reach information on study abroad,” he explained.
“Thus, we decided to create the website for the purpose of making information easily accessible to Japanese planning to study abroad.”
The site also gives more general information such as the average cost of living in different countries and provides a calendar of study abroad fairs and other events.
And a frequently asked question section answers queries such as ‘How do I check whether a school is a good school?’ and ‘Will I be able to enter a Japanese graduate school after graduating from an overseas university?’
