After Japan eased its COVID-19 border restrictions, organizers of study-abroad programs thought things would return to normal.

But additional circumstances beyond their control have led to plunging numbers of applicants, canceled projects and a dramatic shift in preferred destinations.

Rising energy prices, combined with the yen’s depreciation, have led to skyrocketing costs to study abroad, particularly at universities in Western countries.

Takenori Masui, head of the clerical office division for international majors at Kyoto Tachibana University, said he saw signs of change in autumn last year.

When the university resumed its study-abroad programs following a pandemic-related suspension, the number of students applying for Malaysian universities sharply increased. The quotas had seldom been filled in earlier years for the schools in the Southeast Asian country.

The university’s Faculty of English and Global Communication requires its second-year students, in principle, to study at a partner educational institution abroad for a year. Universities in Canada, Australia and Britain have been popular destinations.

Kyoto Tachibana University has two partner universities in Malaysia, where classes can be taken in English. The number of students studying there doubled from 12 in fiscal 2019 to 24 this fiscal year.

A maximum of 10 students had been set for each university, but the quotas were expanded on an exceptional basis.

“We had been told by many parents and other guardians of our students that they were worried about the soaring expenses for studying abroad,” Masui said.

To attend a U.S. university with the most expensive tuition, a Kyoto Tachibana University student must pay about 3.2 million yen ($21,000), even with the Kyoto university’s grant-type scholarship system. For an Australian university with a standard level of tuition, the cost is about 1 million yen.

The corresponding fee for a Malaysian university is zero.

MORE PARTNER UNIVERSITIES IN ASIA

Expecting the high cost of studying abroad to continue, Kyoto Tachibana University officials have looked for new partner universities in Malaysia.

They have secured a deal with one school to host 30 students in Malaysia in fiscal 2024.

“What matters about the study-abroad program is that students from ordinary households are given the opportunity to experience this,” Masui said. “With the rising expenses and other factors, however, more students are being careful in choosing their destinations. I hope the government will expand its scholarships to give them encouragement.”

BIG IMPACT

The Asahi Shimbun and the Kawaijuku Educational Institution, a cram school operator, conducted their annual joint survey on universities in Japan this past summer.

Tohoku Fukushi University in Miyagi Prefecture and Kanto Gakuin University in Kanagawa Prefecture also said they are looking around Asia for more affordable partner institutions for their students or for short study-abroad programs.

Sixty-one percent of the respondent universities said the weaker yen is having a “big impact” on study-abroad programs, while 54 percent cited soaring prices in Western countries.

Such factors were cited more emphatically by officials of national universities, universities in the urban areas of Tokyo, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka and Fukuoka, and universities with an admission quota of 1,000 or more.

These schools include many comprehensive national universities and prestigious private universities.

Around 20 percent of the respondents said either factor is having a “slight impact” on study-abroad programs.

Many respondents said they know of students who have given up on studying abroad because of the growing expenses and other reasons.

Officials of one private university in Tokyo said they canceled a short language-training course at a U.S. university scheduled from February through March this year.

“The weaker yen caused the course participation fee to skyrocket from around 670,000 yen of previous years to 930,000 yen, and the program failed to attract the minimum requirement of 10 participants,” an official said.

An official at Otaru University of Commerce in Hokkaido said, “A certain number of students have given up on going abroad to study because the cost of travel and other expenses have surged.”

An official at a public university in Kyushu said, “At least one student abandoned an earlier plan to study abroad because rising prices in the United States and the weaker yen have affected preparations for financing the trip.”

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES ON CAMPUS

Many universities are working to ensure their students will still have opportunities for international exchanges.

Fifty-four percent of the respondent universities said they are trying to increase opportunities for on-campus interactions with foreign students and non-Japanese teaching staff.

“We have installed a communal area where international students can interact with domestic students,” said an official at Rikkyo University in Tokyo. “We have organized about 260 exchange events in fiscal 2022, with more than 2,000 participants.”

Officials of Konan University in Hyogo Prefecture said they are organizing various activities and events to promote interactions between Japanese and international students. The foreign students play the role of tutors while Japanese students serve as assistants under the supervision of teaching staff.

Those events were attended by more than 10,000 in fiscal 2022.

“We also have a system for assigning points to students for their track records in studying abroad and other forms of international exchange and granting them certificates in three stages,” a Konan University official said.

COSTLY MAJORS

Soaring inflation has dampened admission applications for faculties related to foreign languages and international studies. These majors characteristically require students to study abroad.

“Applicant numbers remain weak for faculties where students are obligated to study and work abroad for about five months,” an official of Asia University in Tokyo said in the survey.

The university attributed the trend partly to the overseas travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The school has not yet calculated the impact of the rising costs for studying abroad on the applicant numbers.

The Asia University official said some students and their guardians appeared troubled when they were told how much it would cost to study overseas.

The School of Global Studies with Chukyo University in Aichi Prefecture also requires its students to study for three months in the United States or Canada in the autumn of their first year.

The school, however, was unable to attract as many applicants as it had hoped for in fiscal 2021 and 2022 because students were unable to go overseas because of COVID-19.

“It became possible again in fiscal 2022 for our students to study abroad as scheduled,” a university official said. “The applicant numbers showed a recovery in the examination for fiscal 2023 admissions.”

The university official added, “There are certainly problems like soaring expenses for studying abroad due to foreign exchange fluctuations and other factors, but we are hoping to attract more applicants by publicizing, for example, our educational program for nurturing outstanding foreign language skills and highly specialist expertise.”

Kawaijuku’s figures show the number of applicants for university faculties related to foreign language majors have continued to fall since fiscal 2020, when cross-border travel was restricted because of the novel coronavirus.

The number of similar applicants for all private universities almost halved from about 137,000 in pre-pandemic fiscal 2019 to about 73,000 in fiscal 2023.

The corresponding numbers for national and public universities were down about 25 percent.

Kawaijuku held a mock examination in August for those seeking university admission next spring.

The number of test takers aspiring to enter faculties of foreign languages fell 9 percent year on year for all private universities and dropped 4 percent year on year for national and public universities.

“That is largely attributable to the diversifying career choices of females, who account for about 70 percent of all applicants for foreign language majors,” said Osamu Kondo, chief researcher at Kawaijuku’s education research and development headquarters. “More females are going, for example, to science majors.

He added, “Some students preparing for entrance examinations are also likely hesitating to apply for foreign language majors because of the soaring prices and the weaker yen.”

The Asahi-Kawaijuku survey, titled “Hiraku: Nihon no Daigaku” (Going ahead: Universities of Japan), has been taken annually since 2011, covering universities across the country, except for graduate-only and correspondence-only universities.

This year’s survey was sent to 778 universities between June and August. Responses were obtained from 643, or 83 percent, of the total.