An interview with PM Shinzo Abe’s wife Akie appeared in the BBC recently. In the interview, she indicates interest in an issue that I have had personal experience with:
Another interest of mine is to increase care for those students from abroad who are studying in Japan – I wonder if there is anything I can do in my present position to help them like Japan more.
The wife of the prime minister is a very special position. If there is something only I can do while I am in this position then I would like to contribute and I would like to be useful.
That’s a noble pursuit, indeed. However, as far as I can tell she has zero history promoting any such agenda. She may be studying Korean, but it’s apparently just because she’s such a big fan of Korean soap operas.
No, it’s far more likely she, like her husband Shinzo most of the time, will be using her position to promote existing education ministry policies.
According to the latest outline of Japan’s educational exchange program (PDF), there are already several government programs in place that could be interpreted as encouring a positive opinion of Japan. These include generous government scholarships (for a lucky 10%), subsidized Japanese language education, subsidized housing, access to Japan’s 70%-off national health care plan, and the ability to work part-time while studying.
If that’s not enough, students also commonly have access to cultural activities such as calligraphy:
And interaction with the community:
Compared to the US, where visa procedures, stringent restrictions on work, and a general atmosphere of distrust would seem to be counterproductive to fostering a positive attitude of the country, Japan’s system seems to already coddle its foreign students quite a bit. But most of the foreign students who get their undergrad degrees in Japan cannot find work in the country and end up having to go back. The way I see it, Japan can do two things to make its foreign students “like Japan,” and they are both things the US does a pretty good job of — offer a top-rate education and the opportunity to get a piece of the economic pie by allowing the students to stay and make a career in Japan. Statements like Mrs. Abe’s show that this still isn’t the priority. The scholarships that give educations that foreign students can take back with them are certainly beneficial, but I think Japan can do more than the limited opportunities it gives now, especially when many companies are clamoring for foreign labor.
Is a “history” of helping honkies a requirement for doing such a job? My years here have taught me that genuine hospitality are much more helpful than “foreigner-friendliness,” which usually just means the person in question can speak pig English and you wouldn’t want to spend any more time than necessary with them. Indeed, in many my interactions with Japanese where I am the first foreigner they have gotten to know well are some of the best.
Next: is it really that hard for foreign students to stay in Japan? I know more than a few “foreigners”, from American, European, Nepalese, Korean, Chinese, and Thai backgrounds, who graduated from schools in Japan and have continued to live in Japan for near a decade without getting married. As long as a company can sponsor your work visa, it’s pretty easy to stay in Japan.
The US lets foreigner students spend an extra year in the country post graduation, so they have plenty of time to look for work that will let them extend their stay even more. Does Japan have such a rule? I think students from countries that do not have a tourist visa waiver agreement with Japan, like most Western countries do, might have a more difficult time finding a job to do after they graduate.
I think that the Japanese government does an excellent job of helping foreign students to “like” Japan. I did a government funded intensive language course and it was a great experience. National universities also pay up to make sure that their foreign students can tour Nara, Kyoto, etc. for next to nothing.
I also think that the job market is not all that grim for graduates. Of the people that I studied with in Japan — an American, an Indian, two Koreans, and a Chinese (that I know of) got jobs in Japan (software and business). I was at a national university so there may be a difference.
At present, American has some excellent programs like the Fulbright, but with America’s global image and the winning of hearts and minds in the middle of so many debates, I think that something major on the scale of Japan’s Monkasho scholarship scheme would be great.
it’s posts like this that convince me that you guys need to blog in Japanese too. Maybe a seperate blog on mixi or whatever is popular in Japan right now…
Certainly it’s not difficult for foreign graduates of Japanese universities to get jobs in Japan. A look through the name-list [meibo 名簿] of former Mombusho/Monkasho Undergrad Scholars will show that very many of them find jobs in Japan, and not just the typical gaijin eikaiwa racket as well.
And in terms of getting foreigners to ‘like’ Japan, I was told by a prof from Gaidai that the real reason for the Monkasho Scholarship is to produce pro-Japan people. They certainly pay the students well enough to sure that….
But yes, with student visas generally being a year long, unless you have a job by graduation then you’re out.
Maybe Akie can just invite everyone to a huge piss-up. That would make me like Japan more, and I’m sure she’d enjoy it.
But I agree, the scholarship programmes are very generous here, and I know of friends from my university years in Japan who have gone on to very good jobs afterwards.
Bryce has a point…I’d be up for the piss-up…
But seriously, Akie: it’s the economy, stupid. Or it’s your own economy (ie, wallet). Give them jobs and they’ll love the end out of Japan. Give them jobs with a sense of progression, promotions and the ability to accomplish something and they’ll even respect Japan…
…which was one of your husband’s goals for shaping the ‘Beautiful Japan.’
Bryce: indeed, I hear that Ms. Abe really fancies the sauce…
MF: Yes, the US lets foreigner students spend an extra year in the country, but its tough as balls to get a work visa post-9/11. Japan has no such grace period, but most students in university have completed all their credits by their third year and spend their fourth year doing 就職活動. A foreign student who does the same as all other students shouldn’t have trouble switching to a work visa, which are waaaaaay easier to get in Japan, not subject to quotas, and you can convert while in the country (whereas you have to go back to your home country to get a visa in the US; no renewals done domestically since 9/11!).
Clay: I’ve wanted to blog in Japanese for a while, if just to improve my writing skills. (Blogging has really improved my English writing skills.) Any interested parties at MF or otherwise should get in contact with me via email or through the contact form at ComingAnarchy.
Bryce — I’d say that 50-99% of Monkasho scholarship payments go on booze, so, in a way, the Japanese government is already funding a great 4 year drunk for some people….
More on Jade OC’s point – I know some Monkasho veterans who CHOSE to go back to their own country to work but I have not heard of anyone who wanted to work in Japan and was not able to…. Perhaps some of the students who are not finding jobs are going to no-name universities and technical schools — just the kinds of places that have not been successful at placing their Japanese graduates lately. It is also my impression that schools with a very high percentage of foreign students (like Ritsumeikan Ajia Taiheiyo Daigaku in Beppu) also have a very high rate of graduate employment.
Sure, it’s relatively easy to get a job in Japan as an educated foreigner. The Japanese government is basically in favor of allowing foreigners to get an education and work in the country. What shocked me was Akie’s lame attitude about it that I think reflects a lot of people’s short sighted atitude.
One weird thing about the visa issue is that it’s the education ministry that handles the exchange programs while the health and labor ministry is in charge of the labor policy. So you see education white papers that extol the virtues of Shodo lessons while the labor ministry and cabinet study groups suggest more realistic policies such as the creation of the above-mentioned year-long extension of an education visa after graduation.
And the Japanese government has been promoting the hiring of foreign high-tech laborers for some time now and yes its restrictions are not that much already. And judging from the dozen or so non-Korean foreigners who are approved for citizenship every day, many of them have chosen to make a life in the country.
“Japan has no such grace period, but most students in university have completed all their credits by their third year and spend their fourth year doing 就職活動.”
True enough, and also true that work visas are easier to get in Japan than the US (I have a 3 year work visa right now, despite only having signed a one year contract! This would NEVER happen in the US.) But you’re only thinking of undergrads. The vast majority of foreign students on Japanese government scholarship are graduate students, who don’t have so much free time to devote to shuukatsu. Allowing a period of post-graduate residence to look for work would still be a good policy, even if it isn’t as urgently needed as in the case of the US.
Does anyone know about other countries?
Well, one fellow I know figured out how to work in the US without going for the rigmarole of getting sponsored for a working visa.
He started his own LLC, sponsored himself in the LLC’s name, and then got the company he wanted to work for to hire the LLC as a contractor.
This wouldn’t work in Japan because the company would be a bigger pain in the ass than the visa.
Joe,
It’s not so hard at all to start an LLC in Japan right now. Takes about 2 weeks and $5k. The catch is, you can’t sponsor your own visa unless you have at least two full time Japanese citizens on payroll.
An LLP would be even easier. I did one myself in Japan in a week. A serious paperwork headache, but not difficult at all.
Ken: What do you mean by LLC? The 有限会社 that no longer exist? The “new” 合同会社? Exactly what entity was the LLP that you incorporated in Japan?
In the US, it takes about 15 minutes and costs something like $200, depending on what state you’re in…
I was very glad to know and listen to Mrs. Akie Abe, as she answered the interview by the BBC staff. It was so heart-warming to know that Japan, is, and will, open her doors, as wide as can be to foreigners, especially in the sectors on health and education. Indeed, there are multitudes of super-intelligent people, and deligent young peoples, all over the world who would like to be part of Japan’s unique educational system. like the Monbusho and Monkasho, are unparellelled elsewhere.
It would be better too, if Mrs Abe could set her sights, not just on Japan’s shores, but also to her neighbors in Asia-Pacific Region, where her immediate peripheral impact will be most felt and appreciated. These countries’s educational system is also in shambles, and Japan, as a leader, must take note of these too.
Japan, no doubt is still a world power, even if she was divested of her military might. And indeed the rising sun, still continue to rise and rise.
LLOYD SOLIS, Ph.D.
Nanchang, Jiangxi, People’s Republic of China
Well, if my name were Solis, I’d hope the sun would keep rising too.
Ho ho, a little pre-Christmas latin fun. Who said I had no sense of humour?