Did young Japanese become inward-looking?

Young Japanese are becoming "inward-looking". I often see these articles lately. According to the media inward-looking could be one of the reasons why the amount of students who study abroad and young co-workers who hope to go overseas are decreasing.

According to the research conducted by Institute of International Education (IIE), the total amount of Japanese students who studied in the U.S were only 21,290 people. This is 14% less than the previous year and more than 50% less compared to its peak in 1997.

In response to this, internet-bashing was happened such as " Today's young people don't have a passion" or "They don't have a challenging spirit".

Without doubt, Japanese students who study in the U.S are declining.

However, I don't think it's true that inward-looking is the cause. I think it's really dangerous to accept all the information from media without deep thinking. Don't you think that's really rude to label young Japanese like this easily?

Why is it declining actually?

First of all, the economic reason is a big influence. Actually, American universities raised the charge of school expenses immediately. The average cost is 33,973 dollars for tuition, room rent and food expense during nine months in public four-year university from 2011 to 2012. The expense increased by 16% compared to three years ago. In addition, the long recession in Japan made young Japanese become hesitant to go abroad to study.

Next, the front-loaded job hunting system in Japan makes students think that the overseas education is disadvantage for job-hunting. Meanwhile, it could be another reason that many companies go global these days, but when it comes to hiring, they tend to not focus on student's experience abroad.

In addition, we have to consider that many students go overseas except the U.S such as China and Australia and the total amount of young Japanese is declining compared to the old days.

In the '90s, There were more than two million people, but the total amount of students who studied abroad was only 20,000 people. On the other hand, 60,000 students go abroad to study even in the bad economy and bad job-hunting situation recently. When it comes to the point of the absolute number, the total amount of students who study abroad is declining.

However, when it comes to the point of the studying abroad rate, it's not declining too much.

Therefore, I think it's wrong to jump into the conclusion easily that young Japanese became inward-looking, that's why they don't go abroad to study.

It's true that inward-looking students are increasing, but at the same time, people who have the thought of wanting to go overseas are increasing too.

In other words, it's a polarization in the thought of going overseas isn't it?

To be sure, there may be more demerits than a merit to study abroad compared to the old days. However, if we consider that a lot of Japanese companies will expand overseas in the future, I recommend young people to go abroad to study. I think that going abroad and learning new language and culture, and making acquaintances will help not only young Japanese themselves, but also companies and Japanese society in the future. Therefore I think companies and Japanese government should make a better situation that young Japanese can go abroad to study more easily.

Written in Jun 13 and revised Jun 29

Data source：http://d.hatena.ne.jp/Pada/20110813/1313346366