First in a two-part series
In his opening address to the Diet in January 2008, then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced a proposal to increase the number of foreign students studying in Japan to 300,000 by 2020. The plan, presented under the heading "an open Japan," aims to bring in "top-class talent" from overseas to Japan's graduate schools and industries.
Moves to bring in more foreign students have long been a key engine driving higher education reform in Japan. Yasuhiro Nakasone's ambitious 1983 goal of bringing 100,000 foreign students to Japan — a target that took 20 years to attain (see graph) — was the first step in his plan to "internationalize" Japanese education. Nakasone himself was largely responsible for popularizing the term kokusaika (internationalization), as evidenced by his 1984 pledge to transform Japan into an "international country" (kokusai kokka nihon).