Proposal comes as fewer young Japanese people are showing interest in going overseas.

As anyone who’s ever looked into the prospect of studying abroad at anything beyond the idle daydream level can attest, it’s not cheap. Aside from the travel expenses involved to simply get to another country, there’s the cost of finding housing, coping with a new lifestyle in a place where you may not know budget-friendly places to eat and shop for essentials, and, of course, the cost of tuition, which sometimes comes with the burden of extra fees for international students.

And yet, many who have done it will say that studying abroad, even on a short-term program, can be a life-changing experience that broadens your horizons and opens up enriching career paths that you may have otherwise never even knew existed, much less follow for yourself. Among the proponents of studying abroad, even with the costs involved, is Tokyo mayor Yuirko Koike, who has announced a plan for the Tokyo metropolitan government to start handing out grants to students who want to study abroad.

Koike, who spoke about the initiative on Sunday, said that the amount of financial support students receive would be dependent on a variety of factors, including the cost of living in their host countries and the length of their study abroad program. For those on short programs, roughly one to four months, a maximum total grant of 900,000 yen (US$5,735) would be possible to pay for travel on tuition expenses, while those on year-long programs could receive as much as 3.15 million yen, which could include a monthly allowance of 150,000 yen for “local activity expenses,” ostensibly cultural and extracurricular activities outside the standard classroom curriculum.

To be eligible, applicants must have Japanese nationality (i.e. must be Japanese citizens), have a parent or guardian who lives in Tokyo, and be enrolled in a domestic university or technical college/vocational school. In other words, the aim of the program is to help students who are already pursuing academic goals to study overseas. In addition, the grants will be for students applying to study at overseas universities, so they can’t be used for language schools. Koike also says that there will be no upper family income eligibility limit for applicants.

The proposed grant system comes at a time when there’s a growing sense that young people in Japan are showing less interest and initiative in going abroad than previous generations did, coinciding with a plummeting value of the yen that’s making studying abroad an economically daunting endeavor even for those who are interested. At the same time, Japan’s aging population and other macroeconomic factors are most likely going to make a global outlook of elevated importance for professionals in Japan in the years to come. “Japan’s international competitiveness is falling” said Koike in discussing the program, adding “We need to accelerate investment in our young people and quickly produce human resources that can contribute globally.”

Koike’s vision is for the program to initially provide grants for 500 short-term study abroad participants and 100 mid/long-term ones, with the first group departing for their overseas experiences in the summer of next year.

Source: Nitele News via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
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