Preparations are under way to open a Japanese-style school for children in Doha as part of a Japan-Qatar effort to teach the language as well as Japanese decorum and manners.
Current plans call for Japan to reopen a school in Doha, the capital of Qatar, that has been closed since 2001. The Gulf emirate will establish adjacent elementary and junior high schools with the aim of opening them next April.
Qatar apparently intends to use Japanese-style education — the driving force behind resource-poor Japan's emergence as a major economic powerhouse — as a reference for its attempts to shift from an economy based on oil and gas to manufacturing.