A Rapidly Shrinking “Study Abroad” Market
Recently, sending organizations on the ground in Nepal have been reporting a sharp decline in the number of students hoping to study in Japan.
One sending organization that used to process around 100 student applications a year has seen that number shrink dramatically, with students genuinely interested in studying abroad now making up only about 10% of its total applicants.
Two main factors lie behind this shift.
The first is the growing number of young people choosing to work in Japan through the Specific Skilled Worker (Tokutei Ginou) program instead.
In Nepal, applications under this program have surged in recent years, and a portion of the students who once would have taken the traditional route—enrolling in a Japanese language school, moving on to a vocational school, and then finding employment—are now opting for the faster path to working in Japan that Specific Skilled Worker status offers.
The second factor is the growing awareness that finding a job in Japan effectively requires JLPT N2-level Japanese proficiency.
In the past, even students without a strong commitment to studying could get by simply by choosing the study-abroad route.
Today, however, it’s become clear that without N2, students struggle to gain admission to good vocational schools or find the jobs they hoped for.
As a result, a natural selection process is underway, where only students who are genuinely motivated to study continue to choose the study-abroad path.
While this is a healthy shift in the long run, in the short term it has reduced the overall pool of students available to student-recruitment businesses.
A New Option: Certified Japanese Language Education Institutions
Amid this environment, a relatively new framework—the “Certified Japanese Language Education Institution” system—is drawing renewed attention.
Introduced by Japan’s Ministry of Education, this system certifies language schools that meet a defined set of educational standards.
Of the roughly 800 Japanese language schools nationwide, only about 10% currently hold this certification, and awareness of the distinction remains low.
So what actually separates a certified institution from a conventional, non-certified (“todokede” or notification-based) school?
On the procedural side, certified institutions generally require fewer supporting documents during the visa screening process, and applications from their students tend to have a higher approval rate for Certificates of Eligibility.
For newly established schools, immigration authorities often scrutinize bank statements and financial documentation covering multiple years rather than just one, paying close attention to whether the funding history tells a consistent, credible story.
Here, the track record and trust associated with certified status can serve as a meaningful advantage during screening.
An even more fundamental difference lies in the substance of the education itself.
Some non-certified schools offer only a limited enrollment period, which can leave students and their families uncertain about what comes after.
Certified institutions, by contrast, build a comprehensive curriculum that goes beyond language instruction to include Japanese society, culture, and history—preparing students not just for enrollment, but for the vocational school or university admission and eventual employment that follow.
In addition, new regulatory requirements now mandate that certified schools employ dedicated staff solely responsible for student support, enabling more attentive assistance with both daily life and career planning.
The Challenge on the Ground: A System Few People Know About
Even so, one major obstacle remains: awareness of the Certified Japanese Language Education Institution system is still extremely limited in the countries these students come from.
According to sending-organization staff in Nepal, only a small fraction of prospective students have even heard of certified schools, and for most students and parents the distinction remains unfamiliar.
The Japanese government, for its part, has not done much to actively communicate the benefits of this system abroad, which leaves room for a purely negative impression to take hold—”they created a new, complicated system that just makes things harder to enter.”
Closing this awareness gap requires close collaboration between sending organizations and the certified institutions themselves, with a shared commitment to clearly explaining the significance of certification to students and their families.
Sharing school information materials, communicating recruitment schedules and required documents well in advance, and clarifying the process from interview through application are all essential, incremental steps.
Inviting graduates who are now working successfully in Japan to speak with prospective students—giving them a concrete picture of what a career path can look like—has also proven effective in broadening students’ perspectives.
Looking Ahead to 2028 and Beyond
Based on what those on the ground are seeing, the market for Nepali students studying in Japan is likely to remain difficult through around 2027.
However, as more examples emerge of Nepali students who achieved N2 or N1 proficiency and went on to secure specialized, well-regarded jobs in Japan, broader societal attitudes toward the value of language school education may begin to shift.
Many in the field expect that by 2028, the number of prospective students will start climbing again.
What matters most is not to be swayed by short-term fluctuations in enrollment numbers, but to stay committed to nurturing students who are genuinely motivated to learn, within a properly regulated framework.
Cultivating talent capable of working alongside Japanese professionals across a wide range of fields—not confined to hospitality or elder care alone—is the shared long-term vision that sending organizations and certified institutions should pursue together.
Ultimately, this kind of talent development also contributes to Nepal’s own long-term growth as a nation.
Even amid short-term headwinds, steadily building both educational quality and public understanding of the certification system is the posture that both sending organizations and receiving institutions need to maintain going forward, as international education and workforce development continue to evolve.
I can introduce you Certified Japanese Language Education Institutions!
コメント