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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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