For students who find it difficult to pay back the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) scholarship loans due to economic circumstances, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology will launch a system with an easier repayment scheme. The MEXT repayment system will extend the payback period as a result of allowing the student to pay only one-third of….Read more

The draft of new curriculum guidelines, unveiled by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry on Feb. 13, which are aimed at improving the quality of school education while maintaining the volume of what students should learn, poses a difficult challenge.   Under the revised curriculum, English will be upgraded to an official subject and computer programming will be….Read more

TOKYO — Students in Japanese elementary schools will start learning English in third grade, two years sooner than now, under a proposal announced Tuesday by the education ministry.   From fiscal 2020, third graders will initially acquaint themselves with the language through listening and speaking as fifth graders currently do. Fifth and sixth graders will learn to read and write….Read more

TOKYO, Feb. 14, Kyodo — Japanese elementary schools will start English education earlier and elementary and junior high schools are told to teach in classes that two disputed island groups are Japanese territory under new curriculum guidelines, the education ministry said Tuesday.   It is the first time that the ministry decided to state in the legally binding guidelines that….Read more

It was recently revealed that at least 128 Japanese university researchers had accepted funding from the United States military, apparently to the tune of more than 800 million yen in the six years from the 2010 academic year. It was already known that the U.S. military provided research funding to Japanese scientists; what was shocking was that the practice had….Read more

The Liberal Democratic Party will soon start discussions on “education bonds” to secure funding sources needed to extend financial support to education, including college education. The idea of making education free is being floated as part of constitutional revision, which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (LDP President) advocates. How to finance free education will be put under consideration. But the Ministry….Read more

Online application systems for university entrance exams, which private universities started using first, are now being introduced by national and other public universities one after another. In addition, some colleges are offering discounted examination fees to students who apply to more than one department. The schools also increasingly accepting external English test scores in lieu of the college’s independent English examinations. Amid….Read more

In the U.S., diminishing interest in the Japanese language is sparking concern among Japanese teachers and those involved in Japanese language programs there. As the number of students studying Japanese is declining, some districts are scrapping their Japanese language programs. Japanese language education has long supported the Japan-U.S. alliance at the grassroots level. The decline of interest in the Japanese….Read more

TOKYO, Feb. 6, Kyodo — A government advisory panel on Monday began considering limiting the establishment of new universities and departments in Tokyo as part of measures to alleviate concentration of students in the capital.   The panel is also expected to consider ways to stem the outflow of young people from regional areas, including measures to revitalize regional universities….Read more

The government will soon launch the first state-backed scholarships in an effort to make universities more accessible as more students face financial difficulties to pursue higher education.   The move is considered a big step forward in a country where the government has to date only offered student loans.   But, still, the size of the program is too small….Read more