OSAKI, Miyagi Prefecture–The city government plans to establish a municipal Japanese language school to attract foreign students in the hopes they will reside here after graduation, which will help tackle the declining population.
“We would like to find talented people from overseas and promote a multicultural coexistence,” said Osaki Mayor Yasushi Ito.
This will be the second municipal Japanese language school in Japan, city officials said.
The school, which is scheduled to open in April 2025, will be located in the now-closed Nishi-Furukawa Elementary School.
The former school building will be renovated at a cost of around 220 million yen ($1.5 million), including replacing toilets with Western-style ones.
The new school will have a capacity of 60 foreign students.
Details, such as the duration of study and the curriculum, are still under consideration.
This initiative was driven by concerns over the declining population.
The city’s population stood at 127,330 as of the 2020 national census, a decrease of 6,061 people over the past five years.
The aging rate of its residents exceeds 30 percent, which is higher than the national average.
Foreign students with a study-abroad residence status are allowed to work part time for up to 28 hours per week if they obtain special permission to engage in activities other than those permitted under their visa status.
The city government hopes to have them work at local restaurants or other establishments while they are studying. Officials are considering setting up a student dormitory in the center of the city for them as well.
They are also looking to help students find jobs at local companies to entice them to stay.
The city is following the example of Higashikawa town in Hokkaido, which established the first municipal Japanese language school in the country in 2015.
Higashikawa has a population of around 8,500. It had only 50 foreign nationals at the end of 2012, before the school was established, but the population climbed to 517 as of the end of 2022, a more than 10-fold increase.
The overall population of the town also grew.
However, the Japanese language school in Higashikawa was found to have allowed former elementary and junior high school principals who did not meet the requirements for teaching Japanese to lead classes.
Even if the school in Osaki opens, there are still many issues to be resolved, such as if the school can attract students and secure enough teachers.