Japan Has More Foreign Students Than Ever Before. Where Does the U.S. Fit in?
by 
May 2, 2025
There are many Japanophiles out there, and that includes students from other countries who choose to go to the island nation for school. The Japan Student Services Organization disclosed its numbers for the Study on the Enrollment Status of Foreign Students, and it made some interesting discoveries. For one thing, the number of foreign students learning in Japan is at its highest rate yet. And while students come from countries all over the world, one country in particular stands out for having the most students going to Japan.
There were 336,708 foreign students taking higher education in Japan last year during May. Data on foreign students in Japan started to be compiled in 1983, and this is more than twice the original number. In fact, it’s also 20% more than the number of students in 2023.
So which country has the highest percentage of students going to study in Japan? The answer is China, with 123,485 students. That means that more than one out of three foreign students in Japan is Chinese.
The top five nations are all ones near Japan. After China, the second most common is Nepal (64,816 students), followed by Vietnam (40,323 students), then Myanmar (16,596 students), and then South Korea took fifth place with 14,579 students. There were 367 fewer South Korean students compared to 2023, but otherwise all the student numbers went up from these countries.
If you’re wondering where America fits, the answer is in eleventh place, with 3,918 students. That’s a little over one percent of the students.
Of all the English-speaking nations, America does come in first in terms of students. The United Kingdom takes the twenty-first spot with 953 students. Canada is a few spaces behind, at twenty-fifth place with 598. Then Australia comes in twenty-eighth place with 472 students.
Besides interest in the country and its culture, the weaker yen also makes higher education in Japan attractive to many people.
Would you be interested in going to school in Japan?
Source: SoraNews24
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
