Japanese-language study is growing in popularity overseas every year, especially in East Asia, driven by interest in animation and the desire to find work in Japan.
According to a 2006 survey by the Japan Foundation, Japanese was being taught in 133 countries and territories throughout the world to an estimated 2.98 million people, an increase of 26.4 percent from three years before.
Since 1984, when the foundation started the Japanese-language proficiency test for non-native speakers, the number of people taking the test has gone up every year. That first year, the number was 7,000. By 2008 it had grown to some 560,000, half of them Chinese and 20 percent South Korean.