The Foreign Ministry will send specialists to “blank areas” of the Global South to help locals learn Japanese, a move in line with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plans to toughen policies on foreigners.
The program, starting from fiscal 2026, is aimed at training instructors in emerging and developing nations and improving the foundation of Japanese language education. That way, foreign nationals can study Japanese before they come to Japan.
The Japan Foundation, an incorporated administrative agency affiliated with the Foreign Ministry, dispatches Japanese language specialists to Europe, Central and South America, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
The specialists include those with a master’s degree or higher in Japanese language education or other fields, as well as experts with a certain degree of work experience in teaching Japanese.
Based at the foundation’s offices, educational institutions and other locations in each country, the specialists help to train Japanese language instructors and create educational curricula.
About 120 specialists, including assistant teachers, had been dispatched to around 40 countries by January.
The government released its comprehensive policy package toward foreigners on Jan. 23, which incorporated measures to improve Japanese language education for foreign nationals before they enter the country.
The Foreign Ministry included about 50 million yen ($320,000) in its initial budget proposal for fiscal 2026 for the program.
The ministry intends to send additional Japanese specialists mainly to Pacific island nations and Southwest Asian countries where Japanese language schools are scarce and learning environments are insufficient.
According to the Japan Foundation, about 4 million people outside of Japan are learning Japanese, mainly in China, Indonesia and South Korea, where Japanese is taught in secondary education.
In recent years, more people in Myanmar and Sri Lanka are learning Japanese for work in Japan.
The ministry plans to dispatch Japanese language specialists primarily to countries with a need to improve their educational foundation.
AloJapan.com