The number of foreign students enrolled in high schools for at least three months in fiscal 2013 increased after a steep drop two years earlier caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region, the government said.
The number of foreign students in the year to March 2014 rose 30 percent to 1,665, against 1,283 in fiscal 2011 and 1,824 in fiscal 2008.
The recovery was apparently due to fading concern over the March 2011 disaster, which also triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, an education ministry official said Wednesday.
The tally included 536 Chinese, 149 Americans, 127 Thais and 109 Germans. Of the total, 979 students, or 59 percent, remained for six to 12 months.
Those who attended a high school less than three months totaled 4,966, up 58 percent.
The number of Japanese high school students who studied overseas for three months or longer in fiscal 2013 was up 20 percent compared with fiscal 2011 at 3,897, with more local governments extending financial support, the ministry said.
They included 1,156 who studied in the United States, 847 in New Zealand, 642 in Canada and 454 in Australia.
A total of 3,402 of these students, or 87 percent, stayed abroad for six to 12 months.
Japanese students who spent less than three months abroad increased 27 percent to 38,152.