Cinthia Nagashima, 24, has been unemployed since she lost her factory job in May and is now aware of the need to study Japanese more strongly than before.
Japanese fluency was a requirement for her previous job, too, but Nagashima, who is from Brazil and speaks little Japanese, was able to get it as the economy was still buoyant and the manufacturing industry was facing a serious labor shortage in 2006.
"But the situation is really harsh against us these days," she said. "I want to be fluent in Japanese so I can have more job opportunities."
Nagashima has never had any systematic Japanese education since she came to Japan in 2003 along with her third-generation Japanese-Brazilian husband.