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Why Are Japanese Language Schools in a Slump?
A recent article from the English version of Asahi.com described the closure of a Japanese language school (for foreigners) that the government had set up in Toyama Prefecture with high expectations. According to the article, the school closed because it was unable to meet enrollment goals. The government had projected enrollments of up to 500 students. In 2005, however, only 19 students enrolled.
The article mentioned that private Japanese language schools within Japan also have been suffering from declining enrollments in the past few years. While I don’t claim to have conducted an extensive study on the problem, I do have a few comments and predictions.
Interest in the Japanese language rises and falls with the Japanese economy. While the recent fervor for Japanese manga has attracted a few language students, career and business seem to be the main motivators behind Japanese language study. The original Japanese language boom of the late 1980s to early 1990s was fueled by the so-called “Bubble Economy” of 1987 to 1991.
Anyone who was selling Japanese language instruction in these days enjoyed a lucrative seller’s market. As most of you likely know, Japan’s economy tanked in 1992, and overseas interest in the language sharply declined thereafter. Throughout the mid-1990s, a number of Japanese learning publications (like Mangajin) went out of business.
However, Japan’s economy is now on the mend. The Nikkei is rising, and Japanese companies (especially the Japanese automakers) are gaining more market share overseas. (Some pundits predict that Toyota will be the world’s largest automaker by 2010.) The Economist recently dedicated an issue to exploring the resurgence of the Japanese economy. If history repeats itself, this will lead to an accompanying resurgence of Japanese language studies throughout the world.
There is more competition among languages now. When I started studying Japanese, there were few other foreign language choices that really made sense for an American college student on the business/technical track.Sure, there was French and German; but how many American jobs really have a direct connection to France or Germany? And almost no one was studying Chinese or Spanish for business purposes in 1990. Japanese was the hands-down choice if you wanted to make real money with your language skills.
Today, however, Chinese and Spanish are very useful for business majors. I imagine that at least some people who in previous years would have been attracted to Japanese have instead thrown in their lots in with Chinese or Spanish.
There are more learning options for students of Nihongo. The fact that Japanese language schools in Japan are suffering from declining enrollments doesn’t necessarily mean that equivalently fewer people are studying Japanese. In recent years there have been substantial improvements in Japanese pedagogy outside Japan; and the Internet has made it easier to find and acquire Japanese self-study materials. Therefore, I suspect that many people are learning Japanese before going to Japan, which would obviate the need for them to enroll in a Japanese language school once they are in Japan.
These are just my semi-educated guesses. In any event, Japan’s private and public language schools have an important mission to fulfill. Let us hope that they find new ways to innovate and prosper in the future.