Concerns are growing over the future of a public program to dispatch foreign teachers to Japanese public schools as a key administrative reform panel has urged the government-linked body that runs the program to drastically cut its overall budget.
But government officials in charge of the operating body told The Japan Times recently the recommendation is unlikely to lead to direct budget cuts for the 23-year-old Japan Exchange and Teaching program, in which the central and local governments dispatch assistant language teachers to public high schools nationwide with public money.
"We don't regard the results of 'jigyo shiwake' (budget screening) as a clear and immediate request to cut the budget of the JET program," said Takashi Endo of the international division of the internal affairs ministry's Local Administration Bureau.