LABOR SHORTAGE: INVITE FOREIGN STUDENTS TO SCHOOLS
As the severe labor shortage caused by the declining birthrate is becoming a social problem throughout Japan, FNN has learned that the first initiative to invite foreign students to Japanese high schools and support them until they find jobs in Japan will be launched as a government measure.
The first foreign student arrived in Japan on the morning of January 20.
Two female students who had just graduated from an Indonesian junior high school arrived at Kansai Airport on the morning of April 20.
It was learned that Himeji Jogakuin High School, where the two students will enroll in April, will start a new initiative in cooperation with the national and local governments to support them in entering university and finding employment at local companies, and to nurture them as job leaders in Japan.
The government will support this initiative with tens of millions of yen in grants from the Cabinet Office and other sources, and the school will also work with the city to establish a 200 million yen fund over 10 years.
Puteri Areta, 15, “Hello. I’m from Indonesia. Please give me your warmest regards.
The percentage of the “working-age population” in Japan’s total population has been below 60% since 2018, and Himeji City is also complaining of a shortage of workers in all industries.
Himeji Jogakuin’s President and Principal, Mr. Yukihiko Suriwa, says, “By receiving Japanese-style education from secondary school, we believe it is possible to nurture human resources who will become attached to Japan and contribute to the Japanese society in the future.
Himeji Jogakuin has been working with a local junior high school from which two Indonesian students who arrived in Japan on March 20 graduated, and has dispatched teachers to provide Japanese language education.
The key to solving the serious labor shortage is to encourage foreign students who have become accustomed to Japanese society at a young age to continue to live in Japan after graduation and become job creators.
YAHOO NEWS
March 21, 2024
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/5bed72e35116acf11db13d43ee21ff36fe9a2180
