The number of Japanese students enrolled in U.S. universities in the academic year that started in fall 2011 dropped 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 19,966, compared with around 194,000 Chinese students, up 23.1 percent, the Institute of International Education said Monday.
The figure for the Japanese students was down nearly 60 percent from the peak in the 1997-1998 academic year, and ranked seventh in the country-by-country enrollment ranking, while China remained at the top for the third consecutive year.
Indian students came in second, followed by South Koreans and Saudi Arabians, according to the institute.
In the rankings of U.S. college students' choice of overseas study destinations for the 2010-2011 academic year, Japan fell to 14th place from 11th a year earlier, partly because several study programs in Japan were canceled in the wake of the March 2011 disasters.