Japan to Invest a Great Sum for Overseas Students ScholarshipThe Japanese Foreign Ministry has planed as from next year onwards to input several billion yen annually as scholarship for attracting more overseas students from developing countries to study in Japan, and is expected to add annually 10,000 overseas students to study there five years later.According to Asahi, as part of aid to developing countries, the Japanese Foreign Ministry will make use of the yen loans from Japan Bank of International Cooperation to offer scholarship to these students who wish to study in Japan's universities or postgraduate institutes. The scholarship comes to a total of several billion yen per year. The move by the Japanese government is to increase, five years later, 10,000 foreign students per year to study in Japan with the Asian students in the majority. The Japanese government deems that this can help raise its influence in Asia. If those students would like to find jobs after graduation in Japan's enterprises, it can make up for the shortage of labor force in the Japanese labor market. According to data from Japan's Ministry of Culture, of the students studying in overseas universities and postgraduate institutes, those studying in America account for 490,000, 210,000 in Britain, 250,000 in Germany, and 140,000 in France, while Japan has received only 56,000 in all. In 1983, Japanese former Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro brought forward the plan to make overseas students increase to 100, 000 at the beginning of the 21st century. However, due to the high prices of daily commodities and high tuition fees, the idea of the "100, 000 overseas students plan" hasn't so far come true. This time the Foreign Ministry has apparently taken the factor into consideration. |
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