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<header><h1>Diet group drafts bill that aims to promote Japanese language learning at home and abroad</h1>
<h5 class="gmail-writer">by <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/author/int-tomohiro_osaki/" title="Posts by Tomohiro Osaki" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="nofollow">Tomohiro Osaki</a></h5>
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<time datetime="2018-05-29T18:31:14+09:00">
May 29, 2018 </time>
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<p>A cross-party group of lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a draft
version of what would become Japan’s first-ever law defining the
government’s responsibility to systematically promote Japanese language
education both at home and abroad.</p><p>The drafting of the bill comes
as Japan experiences a continued increase in non-Japanese residents,
including under categories such as technical intern trainees, students,
and highly skilled professionals, but at the same time lacks a unified
policy as to how to teach them Japanese.</p><p>
</p><div style="width:300px;margin:auto"><ins class="gmail-adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px"><ins id="gmail-aswift_1_expand" style="display:inline-table;border:medium none;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"><ins id="gmail-aswift_1_anchor" style="display:block;border:medium none;height:250px;margin:0px;padding:0px;width:300px;background-color:transparent"></ins></ins></ins></div><p></p><p></p><p>The
group hopes to submit the bill to the fall session of the Diet for
possible enactment, Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hiroshi Hase,
secretary-general of the group, told The Japan Times.</p><p>Whether the
bill will be passed through the Diet and how big of an impact it will
create remains to be seen, with its effectiveness likely hinging on how
much funding it receives from the government.</p><p>The draft bill does
not specify any numerical targets for fiscal spending nor set a deadline
for the government to meet the ultimate goal advocated in the
legislation.</p><p>Still, the group has emphasized the bill would be a
key step to help bolster Japanese language education for non-Japanese
residents.</p><p>The draft revealed by the group Tuesday characterized the initiative as a “matter of urgency.”</p><p>It
stipulates the government has to ensure that “anyone who wishes to
receive Japanese language education will be afforded such an opportunity
commensurate with their demand and ability,” calling an improvement in
language instruction “instrumental in realizing a vibrant, co-existent
society respectful toward diverse cultures.”</p><p>“Be they migrant
workers or highly skilled professionals, those who want to be successful
in Japan are now fast moving here, becoming a huge wave,” independent
lawmaker Masaharu Nakagawa, formerly of the Democratic Party, told the
group’s gathering in Tokyo.</p><p>“Our hope is for them to study and
acquire the Japanese language so they can make full use of their talent
in our society. … The law aims to spell out how to realize a domestic
environment that will make this possible,” Nakagawa said.</p><p>Specifically,
the bill declares it the government’s responsibility to offer proper
language training to non-Japanese children, students from overseas,
foreign workers, technical interns, and refugees.</p><p>In the absence
of a central policy, the draft also says a consultative body of language
experts must be established to coordinate relevant government entities,
such as the education and foreign ministries, to push for the
“comprehensive,” “unified” and “effective” promotion of Japanese.</p><p>The bill also calls on the government to promote education overseas by helping language institutions abroad.</p><p>While
China has been aggressively seeking to raise the global profile of
Chinese language and culture with the establishment of the
government-funded Confucius Institute, Japan has no such policy aimed at
“strategically promoting Japanese language overseas,” the group said in
a statement upon its launch in November 2016.</p><p>“One of the reasons
why people overseas remain reluctant to come and study in Japan is that
in the global community, there is little advantage to them learning
Japanese,” LDP lawmaker Kazunori Tanaka, a member of the group, said at
the gathering.</p><p>The envisaged bill also calls for measures
addressing the emergence of rogue Japanese language institutions that
allegedly profiteer by arranging for their students — especially those
from some developing Asian countries — to engage in illegal overwork.</p><p>Critics
have argued a sizable number of students hailing from those countries
are chiefly motivated to work and earn money so they can financially
assist their families back home, rather than study.</p><p>The
government, the draft says, has to consider how to properly “assess”
Japanese language schools in order to “maintain their education
standards.”</p><p>According to the Justice Ministry, the number of
non-Japanese residents hit a record-high 2.56 million as of the end of
2017. By visa status, those on student visas accounted for the
third-largest share at 311,505, up 12.3 percent from a year earlier,
followed by technical interns at 274,233.</p><p>A separate education
ministry survey showed that the number of foreign and Japanese children
deemed to be in need of Japanese language education reached 43,947 as of
May 2016, a significant increase from 26,281 in 2006.</p></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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