OSAKA, Dec. 31 -- For Cui Yongqiang, an overseas Chinese student in Kyoto University, 2015 is the last year of his five-and-a-half-year academic life in Japan, as well as the most memorable one.

"I accepted a job offer back in China this year, which is a very important life decision. My academic paper was accepted by a famous scientific magazine, and as a volleyball fan, I proudly saw China women's national volleyball team win the champion of the World Cup in Japan... these are the moments that made my life in 2015 especially memorable." he said when reviewing the past year.

Cui came to Japan in October, 2010 for a successive postgraduate and doctoral program of study on the development of cost-effective strategy on soil pollution control. During these five years, he has worked hard and made a lot of academic progress.

Cui's work was recently accepted by a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Protection this year, which made him very happy.

Now with a doctor's degree and excellent professional training, Cui has been pre-recruited by a famous Chinese real estate company in China's Guangdong province, with a very attractive salary package that beats all his other job offers from Japanese companies.

"China is developing fast. Now more and more overseas Chinese students choose to go back to work in China after graduation, as they have more opportunities and better prospects in China," he said.

"Of course, to serve the motherland is also a factor that I have considered," he added.

In September, China women's national volleyball team won the champion of the World Cup in Nagoya. Cui was unable to watch the game on the spot but managed to watch it on TV.

"When the girls of the volleyball team stood on the victory stand and the Chinese national flag rose slowly, I was so proud of the motherland," he said.

He expressed this feeling in his WeChat "Circle of Friends", a popular social media in China, and the message received dozens of "likes".

When the Chinese football team Guangzhou Evergrande played Osaka Gamba in Osaka this October, Cui, as head of a overseas Chinese students' organization in western Japan, organized fellow students to serve as volunteer workers for the game.

"I was very proud," he said. About 6,000 Chinese fans cheered for the team that day in the stadium. Among them were overseas Chinese students, Chinese who work in Japan, as well as fans coming from China.

Since he came to Japan in 2010, Cui has seen the relationship between China and Japan suffering many setbacks. "I really hope the relationship between China and Japan can get better," he said.

Cui is going back to China next March. Looking forward to the year 2016, he said he hoped that he could spend more time with his family in the future, and also do his job well.

"I will celebrate the New Year with my family next year, unlike this year," he said.