Struggling Language Proficiency: Foreign Kids Trailing Behind in Academic Learning
Rising Foreign Enrolment and the Challenge of Japanese Language Education in Japan
The number of foreign children enrolled in Japanese public elementary and junior high schools is on a significant upward trend, reaching approximately 129,000 in fiscal 2024—a 9.0% increase from the previous year. This growth has intensified the challenge of providing effective Japanese Language as a Foreign Language (JFL) education, especially amidst regional disparities between urban and rural areas.
In urban centers like the Tokyo metropolitan area and Aichi Prefecture, where foreign students are more concentrated, schools have somewhat better capacity to provide targeted language instruction and support. For instance, Matsudo city has implemented relatively comprehensive measures for JFL learning to support the needs of these students.
However, the challenge is greater in rural areas, where foreign children are more thinly dispersed. Some prefectures such as Tottori, Ōita, Kōchi, Kagoshima, and Saga have experienced the highest rates of increase in foreign students needing JFL instruction, with growth rates of 1.9 to 2.4 times between 2021 and 2023. Due to smaller numbers and difficulty in securing specialized teaching staff, local governments and schools struggle to provide sufficient language education systems.
The demand for JFL education is not uniformly distributed. About 30% of public elementary and middle schools had at least one student needing JFL instruction in fiscal 2023, but most of these schools (70%) had four or fewer foreign students, which creates a scattered demand and complicates resource allocation for language support.
Japan's foreign population is expected to hit 9.39 million in 2070, making up 10% of the nation's total, according to 2023 projections. However, the inflow of foreign nationals is already outpacing these projections, making it likely that the 10% mark will be reached as early as 2050.
In Matsudo, a city in Chiba Prefecture, 23,000 of its approximately 500,000 residents as of the end of 2024 were foreign nationals. To address the growing need for JFL education, Matsudo Board of Education set a policy to establish JFL classrooms in elementary schools with at least 18 students requiring instruction in fiscal 2022. As of fiscal 2025, 15 out of the city's 45 public schools had established these classrooms.
To ensure that foreign children can acquire the same academic abilities as Japanese children, the national government must establish a clear policy and restructure the education system. MEXT has issued a Guide for Accepting Foreign Children and included Japanese instruction in the national curriculum guidelines starting in fiscal 2018, but the government leaves decisions about actual staffing levels and local JFL programs to municipalities, offering mainly subsidies.
However, there remains a gap in coordinated national policy and resource distribution to ensure equitable JFL education across all regions, especially in less populated rural locations. This underscores the complex educational challenge Japan faces in ensuring foreign children’s successful integration through adequate Japanese language education amid regional disparities and rising enrolment.
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