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Title
Japanese:日本の留学生受入れの経済的側面からの分析と政策への示唆－米国との比較から－ 
English:The Economic and Policy Implications of Accepting International Students: Comparing the Japanese and American Contexts 
Author
Japanese: 佐藤由利子.  
English: Yuriko Sato.  
Language Japanese 
Journal/Book name
Japanese:比較教育学研究 
English:Comparative Education 
Volume, Number, Page     No. 37    page 112-132
Published date June 10, 2008 
Publisher
Japanese:日本比較教育学会 
English:Japan Comparative Education Society 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English: 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English: 
Official URL https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jces1990/2008/37/2008_37_112/_pdf
 
DOI https://doi.org/10.5998/jces.2008.37_112
Abstract The economic benefit to Japan of accepting international students has not been widely discussed, since the main objectives of Japan’s Foreign Policy have been human resource development and the promotion of friendship with student dispatch countries. However, in times of increasing fiscal restraint, it becomes more important to analyze the economic implications of inviting international students to Japan. In 2005, Japan accepted 121,812 international students; 8.1% received national government scholarships, while the remainder came to Japan at their own expense or with the support of private foundations, companies or their own governments. In Japan, the latter group of students is known as shihi ryugakusei, or “international students of private funding”. In 2005, the United States accepted 564,766 students, of whom 0.4% received government scholarships and 25.9% received support from their home universities. Most of these funds originally come from research foundations, state governments and companies and is disbursed to students via the universities in the form of payment for Teaching Assistantships (TA) or Research Assistantships (RA). In this paper, the author first analyzes the change in the annual income from tuition and fees of the international students of private funding in Japan, the annual government budgetary input for these students, and the net income from tuition and fees which is obtained by deducting the latter from the former, from the years 1954 to 2005. Secondly, the author assesses the economic merits of accepting international students in Japan, using similar calculation methods as those adopted in the US. Lastly, the author compares the average amount of tuition and fees, living expenses and institutional support for international students of private funding in Japan and the US and draws policy implications from these analyses. Despite periodic fluctuation, the net income from tuition and fees collected from international students of private funding in Japan was positive from 1954 to 2005. There were two sharp increases in the number of international students of private funding in the mid-1980’s and at the end of 1990’s: the first increase was promoted by the “Plan to Accept 100,000 International Students” advocated by Prime Minister Nakasone in 1983, and the second was triggered by the de-regulation of immigration policies towards international students. Income from tuition and fees fluctuated in accordance with these developments and reached 96.7 billion yen in 2005 while the budgetary input for international students of private funding was 23.3 billion yen. The net income from the tuition and fees, which is obtained by deducting the latter from the former, was 73.4 billion yen, though this figure does not reflect the cost of higher education. This result implies that the acceptance of international students of private funding achieved not only policy objectives such as human resource development and promotion of friendship but also brought profit to Japan. The economic benefit of the accepting international students in Japan was also calculated by adding the tuition, fees and living expenses of international students of private funding and deducting costs incurred by institutional support from government, universities, companies and other related organizations, following calculation methods adopted in the US. In Japan, this amount totaled 174.8 billion yen in 2005, while that of the US was 13.5 billion dollars or 1,550 billion yen, 8.9 times larger than that of Japan. As of 2005, the average tuition and fees borne by an international student of private funding in the US was 2.1 times larger than that of one studying in Japan.

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