Why Japan

Japan is a highly developed country with a very high standard of living and Human Development Index. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, but is experiencing issues due to an aging population and low birthrate. Japan is renowned for its historical and extensive cinema, influential music industry, anime, video gaming, rich cuisine and its major contributions to science and modern technology. Japan is one of the top-performing OECD countries in reading literacy, mathematics and sciences with the average student scoring 540 and has one of the world’s highest-educated labor forces among OECD countries.

“Arbeit”: how to make your studies in Japan even less expensive

As we saw above, the cost of studies in Japan is rather low compared to other developed countries. In addition to that, another nice local feature may make your studies even less expensive. In Japan, foreign students are allowed to work up to 28 hours per week. Most international students decide to work. And they do find jobs easily. So it will really be up to you whether you need the extra income. It could cover your daily expenses. It could enable you to go out more, to travel. The choice is really yours in Japan!

After graduation, many job opportunities await in Japan

You will love Japan and chances are you will want to stay after your studies. That would be a good decision because the Japanese job market is extremely fluid. And the demand for language-skilled, international-oriented people is always strong. Basically, you would appeal to so many (big) Japanese companies that you would have no issue finding a job, regardless of the industry you choose. The job market is that good. As a matter of fact, 50% of Japanese companies are eager to find foreign graduates from Japanese schools. Last but not least, in Japan wages are high for qualified jobs.

Cheaper Lifestyle

Compared to other popular study-abroad destinations, Japan is quite cheap. One year tuition fee in a Japanese school or university costs about 6,000$. That’s half or even the third of what would cost equivalent studies in the US, or in the UK, to name just two of most popular destinations. Likewise, the cost of living is lower in Japan (we will discuss that in another post soon). On top of that, many scholarships are awarded to international students. With or without scholarship, studying is Japan may bring the best value.

The quality of Education in Japan is high

Whether you simply want to study the language or want to enroll in a higher education institution, you can be sure of one thing: the quality of teaching will be high. This is just the rule in Japan: services are top-notch, and that includes Education. Evidence of that is showed by the high number of Nobel Prizes awarded to Japanese people (the highest in Asia, and second in the World since 2000) and the statistics provided by the OECD (for example: Japan constantly has 10 or more universities among the top-200 in the world, Japan is always among the world leaders in literacy).

A Large choice of institutions to choose from

Japan has about 800 universities. And countless Vocational schools and Language Schools (to integrate higher education institutes, you may have to first study at a Language School). As the Japanese government has pledged that it wants to double the number of international students by 2020 (to reach 300,000), institutions have more and more programs for foreigners. International students are really welcome, if not wanted. For example, that will shows in the fact that more and more programs in Japan start in September to accommodate foreigners, instead of April. Whatever your field of Education, whatever your skills, the possibilities are almost limitless. The choice is truly yours.