Radiation fears dampen Chinese students' enthusiasm for studying in Japan

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Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on Chinese leaving or not coming to Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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Radiation fears dampen Chinese students' enthusiasm for studying in Japan
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Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part series on Chinese leaving or not coming to Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

* * *

An explanation by a specialist brought in by the EIC Group, a company that provides support to Chinese seeking to study abroad, didn't get the intended response.

Instead, the presentation about Japan's energy policy during a meeting in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in late April infuriated parents of students thinking about studying in Japan.

"That is not the type of information I want to know," a clearly irritated parent said. "What I want to know is if my child will be able to live safely there."

One mother at the meeting said she has almost daily confrontations with her daughter who insists on studying anime in Kyoto from July.

"My relatives consider me crazy and ask 'Why are you letting her go to Japan of all places?' Even I do not want her to go," the mother said.

An increasing number of Chinese students have either canceled or postponed plans to study in Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Xinquan Overseas Education in Dalian, Liaoning province, normally serves as an agent that sends about 300 students to Japan every year.

However, a company official said, "Only about 20 percent of the students have actually gone as planned this year."

An official at Shanghai Huashen International Education Co. said, "Only about 30 percent of those originally scheduled to go actually began classwork from April."

Takaharu Minami, head of the Dalian office of the Japan International Student Services Organization, said the real decrease will come this autumn.

Those scheduled to enter Japanese schools from April had already completed various procedures before the quake and tsunami. But students thinking about starting courses from autumn must now apply for visas and make payments.

Minami said Japanese-language schools would be especially affected by the disaster. "There is the possibility that in Tokyo the number of students will be only about half of an average year," he said.

Rumors have spread in China that radiation levels in Japan are anywhere between several thousand times and several tens of thousand times higher than standard levels.

The Japanese government's explanation that radiation levels pose no immediate health threat has convinced few Chinese.

"I have no idea what to believe," a 55-year-old Chinese mother said.

Ling Hao, who is in charge of recruiting Chinese students for a Japanese-language school in Tokyo, explains the situation in Japan at various meetings around China. Ling is prepared for a severe drop in students for classes to begin in October.

"I hope the Japanese government, Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the media will speak in terms that are understandable to foreigners," Ling said.

The Niigata prefectural government along with 18 municipal governments in the prefecture provided land and money to create the Niigata University of Management in Kamo as a way of retaining youth in local communities.

The university normally holds explanatory meetings in China every May for students interested in registering for the autumn term. This year, those meetings have been postponed because university officials felt it would be useless.

"It will be even more difficult to convince students who will be coming to Japan for the first time," said Zenjiro Sugiura, a professor of sports management at the university.

About 700 students are enrolled at the university, including 60 international students, most of them from China.

International students play a vital role for university management because it has been unable to fill the entrance quota for several years.

However, after the quake, many international students temporarily returned home. Now, only 25 international students attend classes. Of the 17 who were accepted for the spring term, 10 have still not shown up.

Some international students who have remained in Japan said they decided to stay because of new discoveries they made about the Japanese.

Zhao Xin, 22, a fourth-year student, said: "Before the quake, I thought there were few Japanese who really made an effort. But now everyone is working together as one in the rebuilding process. The feeling has emerged in me of wanting to remain and do my best."

In 2009, about 190,000 foreign students were at Japanese universities and language schools. About 60 percent, or 127,000, were from China.

If Chinese students continue to avoid Japan, government officials will be forced to revise the goal of having 300,000 international students annually in Japan.

Education ministry officials intend to transmit accurate information to attract a greater than usual number of foreign students.

A new measure from this fiscal year to provide support to foreign students on short-term programs will go ahead as scheduled. The measure is intended to prompt more students to think about longer-term studies in Japan.

However, some university officials cast doubts on the new measure. "How many students now want to come to Japan to study on short-term programs?" one official asked.

Due to the central government's overall fiscal problems, the total amount set aside this fiscal year for foreign students is 34.2 billion yen ($417 million), about 1.3 billion yen less than the previous fiscal year.

Two billion yen in scholarships to foreign students has been cut, meaning that undergraduates receiving those grants now get several thousands of yen less a month.

Sachio Hirose, chairman of the Japan Association for International Students Education, which consists of universities and language schools that accept foreign students, said the government's goal for international students is now unrealistic.

"The effects from the nuclear accident will likely not disappear right away. Because the situation has changed dramatically, what is important now is not to chase the figure of 300,000," he said. "Rather, emphasis should be placed on providing support to those students who are truly serious about studying in Japan in order to acquire the personnel who will be needed in the future to support Japanese industry."

(This article was written by Nozomu Hayashi and Kentaro Koyama.)

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