TOKYO — Since 2003, a student organization in Japan has invited young people from Israel and the Palestinian territories to hold discussions in Japan nearly every year.   “The difference between daily life there this summer and the painful events being reported now is unfathomable,” said 22-year-old Rin Ito, a first-year graduate student at the University of Tokyo, recalling her….Read more

In what it said was a “one-time” move, the government granted special residency to scores of foreign families with children who were born, raised and educated in Japan but had faced eventual deportation.   Japan is better known for its strict policies against those who overstay their visas and work illegally, often raising children who grow up speaking Japanese.   The measure announced earlier….Read more

By CHINAMI TAJIKA/ Staff Writer   A record number of parents with children up to the age of 6 do not want more offspring, mainly because of financial worries, according to a survey.   A questionnaire by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. showed that more than 40 percent of mothers and fathers fell into this category, the most since the….Read more

Graduates from Japan’s top university are increasingly shunning careers as public servants, but some central government officials say that trend is not necessarily a bad thing.   The number of applicants for the National Public Employee Recruitment Examinations for career-track positions was 18,295 in fiscal 2022, down by about 7,000, or 30 percent, from fiscal 2012.   Far fewer of….Read more

For the first time, more than half of Japan’s private universities were unable to fill their enrollment quotas for the school year that began in April.   Enrollment shortfalls are particularly serious for small universities in rural areas.   At the root of the problem is the nation’s declining birthrate. Over the past 30 years, the number of 18-year-olds in….Read more

TOKYO — The proportion of young people in Japan who want to raise their children in a dual-income household has declined to about 30%, a survey on junior, senior high school and university students has revealed.   The figure was down by 11.3 percentage points compared to two years ago. The Japan Research Institute Ltd., which conducted the survey, said….Read more

After vowing to recover from previous scandals, Nihon University is now dealing with a drug case involving one of its students. In addition to cooperating with the police investigation, the university should examine whether sufficient progress has been made in its organizational management and reforms aimed at enhancing awareness.   The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a third-year member of….Read more

TOKYO – Third-year junior high students in Japan were only able to answer 12.4 percent of questions correctly on average in an English speaking test for national assessments conducted in April, the education ministry said Monday, marking an 18.4 percentage points fall from when they were previously assessed in 2019.   More than 60 percent of the students evaluated could not….Read more