Rm03-10

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
TOKYO REGIONAL OFFICE

November13, 2003

The National Science Foundation's Tokyo Regional Office periodically reports on developments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's mission. It also provides occasional reports on developments in other East Asian countries.

Tokyo Office Report Memoranda are intended to provide information for the use of NSF program officers and policy makers; they are not statements of NSF policy.

Report Memorandum #03-11

The following report was prepared by Ms. Kazuko Shinohara of the National Science Foundation's Tokyo Regional Office. She can be reached at kshinoha@nsf.gov

More than 100,000 Foreign Students in Japan

The result of the survey conducted by MEXT (Ministry of Education, S&T) revealed that the number of foreign students marked 109,508 as of May 1, 2003, a record highest with an increase from the previous year by 14.6 percent. This means that the target of ・00,000 Foreign Students・set by the Government in 1983 was attained, taking 20 years.

Viewed from the nature of host institutions, 28,542 went to graduate schools, 57,911 to universities/two-year-colleges/technical colleges, 21,233 to vocational schools, 1,822 to those schools which provide remediation course work for those who have not had sufficient education to go to Japanese universities.

Lined up on top of the breakdown of the originating countries were 70,814 from China, followed by 15,871 from Korea, 4,235 from Taiwan, 2,002 from Malaysia, and 1,641 from Thailand.

Now that the goal has been attained, MEXT began to think about future plans. At the end of 2002 a Panel for Foreign Students was established under the Central Education Council. The panel has proposed MEXT to establish a five-year plan. Based on this, MEXT prepared an interim plan and will make it public at the end of December 2003. The plan includes increase of funds for incoming and outgoing students. The plan is expected to improve quality control of incoming students. The measures for the improvement are being discussed. On the other hand, they plan to extend more support to excellent incoming students. For outgoing students, as the majority of them depend on their private funds, MEXT plans to assist them more financially. This way, MEXT expects to increase the flow of students while improving the quality.

The following tables show the detailed analyses of the survey results.

　The numbers are as of May 1, 2003.

Table 1. Number of Foreign Students by Originating Area

			Of the total, Short-term Stay only
AREA	Number of Foreign Students	%	Number of Foreign Students	%
Asia	102,089	93.2	4,146	61.4
Europe	2,759	2.5	1,045	15.5
North America	1,553	1.4	1,090	16.1
Middle & South America	1,019	0.9	141	2.1
Africa	914	0.9	40	0.6
Middle East	629	0.6	44	0.7
Oceania	545	0.5	244	3.6
TOTAL:	109,508	100.0	6,750	100.0

Table 2. Number of Foreign Students by Originating Country

Country	Number of Foreign Students	%
China	70,814	64.7
Korea	15,871	14.5
Taiwan	4,235	3.9
Malaysia	2,002	1.8
Thailand	1,641	1.5
Indonesia	1,479	1.4
Vietnam	1,336	1.2
U.S.A.	1,310	1.2
Bangladesh	974	0.9
Mongol	714	0.7
Sri Lanka	608	0.6
Philippines	508	0.5
Myanmar	492	0.4
Russia	360	0.3
U.K.	357	0.3
Brazil	353	0.3
Nepal	344	0.3
Australia	340	0.3
Germany	311	0.3
France	276	0.3
India	264	0.2
Cambodia	261	0.2
Egypt	255	0.2
Canada	243	0.2
Laos	236	0.2
Iran	217	0.2
Turkey	168	0.2
Pakistan	143	0.1
Singapore	135	0.1
Romania	131	0.1
Others	3,130	2.9
TOTAL	109,508	100.0

Table 3. Number of Foreign Students by Gender

	Number of Foreign Students	%
Male	56,101	51.2
Female	53,407	48.8
TOTAL	109,508	100.0

Table 4. Number of Foreign Students by Nature of Host Institution

	National		Public		Private		TOTAL
	No. of Foreign Students	%	No. of Foreign Students	%	No. of Foreign Students	%	No. of Foreign Students	%
Undergraduate	8,344	15.8	1,348	2.5	43,289	81.7	52,981	100.0
Graduate	19,618	68.7	1,262	4.4	7,662	26.9	28,542	100.0
Two-year College	18	0.4	57	1.3	4,404	98.3	4,479	100.0
Technical College	368	81.6	0	0.0	83	18.4	451	100.0
Voational School	2	0.0	40	0.2	21,191	99.8	21,233	100.0
School for remediation course work	0	0.0	0	0.0	1,822	100.0	1,822	100.0
TOTAL:	28,350	25.9	2,707	2.5	78,451	71.6	109,508	100.0

Table 5. Number of Foreign Students by Field

Field	Number of Foreign Students	%
Social Science	36,245	33.1
Human Literature	26,990	24.6
Engineering	14,472	13.2
Teacher Training	3,292	3.0
Medical/Dental	3,149	2.9
Art	2,821	2.6
Agriculture	2,583	2.4
Home Economics	2,485	2.3
Science	1,433	1.3
Others	16,038	14.6
TOTAL:	109,508	100.0

Table 6. Number of Foreign Students by Type of Housing Facilities

Type of Facilities	Number of Foreign Students
Housing Accommodations for Foreign Students run by schools	15,082
Housing accommodations run by public corporations	7,319
Housing accommodations for any students run by schools	4,958
Private apartments	82,149

Table 7. Chronological Numbers of Foreign Students

Year	Number of Foreign Students	Increase from the Previous Year	Increase Ratio (%)
1978	5,849	94	1.6
1979	5,933	84	1.4
1980	6,572	639	10.8
1981	7,179	607	9.2
1982	8,116	937	13.1
1983	10,428	2,312	28.5
1984	12,410	1,982	19.0
1985	15,009	2,599	20.9
1986	18,631	3,622	24.1
1987	22,154	3,523	18.9
1988	25,643	3,489	15.7
1989	31,251	5,608	21.9
1990	41,347	10,096	32.3
1991	45,066	3,719	9.0
1992	48,561	3,495	7.8
1993	52,405	3,844	7.9
1994	53,787	1,382	2.6
1995	53,847	60	0.1
1996	52,921	-926	-1.7
1997	51,047	-1,874	-3.5
1998	51,298	251	0.5
1999	55,755	4,457	8.7
2000	64,011	8,256	14.8
2001	78,812	14,801	23.1
2002	95,550	16,738	21.2
2003	109,508	13,958	14.6

Table 8. Major Host Institutions for Foreign Students

University	National/Private	Number of Foreign Students
University of Tokyo	National	2,070
Waseda University	Private	1,593
Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University	Private	1,396
Josai International University	Private	1,300
Kyoto University	National	1,224
Nagoya University	National	1,187
Tsukuba University	National	1,139
Takushoku University	Private	1,077
Tohoku University	National	1,054
Osaka University	National	1,044
Nihon University	Private	1,031
Kyushu University	National	998
Osaka Sangyo University	Private	932
Ryutsu Keizai University	Private	928
Tokyo Institute of Technology	National	901
Kobe University	National	868
Yokohama National University	National	852
Tokyo International University	Private	801
Hokkaido University	National	772
Hiroshima University	National	762
Chiba University	National	746
Meikai University	Private	718
Kokushikan University	Private	713
Chuo University	Private	673
Jobu University	Private	657
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies	National	621
Ritsumeikan University	Private	606
Kyushu Sangyo University	Private	557
Shumei University	Private	553
Hitotsubashi University	National	537

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