Concerns over conservative policy impact on foreign students

Concerns over conservative policy impact on foreign students

A rise in political and social conservatism in Japan is worrying academics concerned about the risk of a spillover into the higher education sector, which is currently seeking to increase foreign student numbers.

Far-right parties such as Sanseito, with its ‘Japanese First’ slogan, gained 15 seats in the Japanese parliament in July elections, and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office on 21 October and leads Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is known for her conservative views and tough stance on China.

Takaichi has pledged to increase the defence budget to 2% of gross domestic product. China’s military global influence was identified as the greatest challenge to national security in Japan’s 2025 annual defence report.

“Signs of change, such as placing a priority on ‘Japan First’ policies, pose a threat to universities that are promoting diversity and internationalisation,” said Tomoko Ako, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences who teaches Chinese studies, sociology and human rights.

As part of its new right-wing vision, the administration plans to strengthen national security, she told University World News.

Government subsidies for defence-related research at universities have already caused controversy among Japan’s academics. A government announcement on 24 October, seeking to establish a new intelligence agency to boost security capability, has raised fears of greater government interference in universities even further.

Ako sees the move as a threat to academic and research freedom.

“A national policy focusing on Japan’s defence capabilities will influence the public funds extended to academic research,” she told University World News.

Immigration: A policy focus

A crackdown on illegal immigrants is another policy platform of the new government that is causing concern in universities.

During her news conference last week, Japan’s Minister of State for Economic Security and Science and Technology Policy, Kimi Onoda but also overseeing immigration policies under a newly created ‘foreign nationals’ ministerial portfolio, stressed the importance of taking “strict measures against those who do not follow the rules and revisions of systems”.

Onoda attracted attention in June 2022 for asking questions in the Japanese parliament, the Diet, singling out university students from China for not paying taxes on earnings from their part-time jobs in Japan.

This could have important implications for Chinese nationals who comprise the majority of international students – 41% of international student enrolment in Japan’s higher education institutions, according to 2024 statistics from Japan Student Services Organisation (JASSO).

At art schools, Chinese nationals now make up 70% of international students. Experts said they are aiming in particular for jobs in Japan’s video gaming and information technology companies. At the same time, a Japanese degree facilitates permanent residency in Japan.

International student funding

Yuriko Sato, a former associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and now an independent expert on university internationalisation, contends that while the government’s internationalisation goals will remain unchanged, its policies will prioritise Japanese students over their international counterparts.

“I think the new government will put more emphasis on the dispatch of Japanese students abroad while decreasing the budget for international students, including scholarships,” she said in an email exchange with University World News.

Scholarships for international students became a rallying point in emerging public support for the new government’s conservative-leaning policies.

During the July elections, misleading posts claiming that the government provided scholarships to Chinese students with no repayment conditions led to an uproar on social media. Social media posts focused on the fact that this was happening while Japanese students were drowning in student debt.

One post on X in May, by a person identified as “a lady who supports political conservative parties and ‘Japan First’”, opposed the use of taxpayers’ money to support foreign students, “especially scholarships for Chinese students”.

Posts also attacked the government’s 2021 Support for Pioneering Research Initiated by the Next Generation (SPRING) programme, which is backed by a JPY10 million (US$65,700) budget. Most of the money is for promising Japanese students but also includes international students.

Statistics indicate that Chinese students were the major recipients of the SPRING grants for international students, as they comprise the majority of students enrolled overall in graduate programmes. In fiscal 2024, 10,564 students at 80 universities across Japan received this funding.

However, concerns were raised at a March Diet session about the fact that approximately 40% of the recipients were international students, with the majority being from China.

Referring to divisive social media comments, Kan Kimura, a professor in the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University, stressed in a July article for Diamond magazine, a leading business publication, that “the challenge faced by Japan is to boost the number of clever foreign graduates, as internationalisation of Japanese universities is way behind Western counterparts”.

Revisions of the programme are ongoing in the Diet, including the insertion of a nationality clause in the SPRING programme criteria.

If the SPRING revisions come into effect, as now seems likely, annual support of up to JPY2.4 million (US$16,000) per student from a possible JPY2.9 million will become a thing of the past from fiscal 2027, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on 1 August after the funding cut proposed by the education ministry for foreign PhD students was approved by an expert panel.

The approval sparked a social media outcry from university officials and foreign students already in Japan, as well as those planning to pursue doctoral studies in Japan in the future.

Immediately before the panel meeting on 30 July, an online petition against the change, with more than 19,000 signatures, was submitted to the education ministry.

A formal announcement from the ministry is expected by December.

Financial resource

Japan’s foreign population increased to 3% of the country’s population of 123 million in 2024, up from a steady 1% for decades. The rise is related to policies to accept more foreign workers.

Sato said as the debate on the import of foreign labour intensifies domestically, it is important to remember that Japan has historically relied on international trade and exchange.

“International students ultimately yield profound benefits for Japanese society, enhancing its global connectedness where foreigners still comprise a small minority compared to Western countries,” she pointed out.

The government has stressed that internationalisation is important to “build an open and dynamic society grounded in diversity and inclusion through mutual understanding among people with diverse cultural backgrounds”, according to the ministry’s website.

International students – currently almost 14% of total enrolment and 21.4% of graduate students – are also a vital financial resource for universities. The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research projects the population aged 16-24 will decrease by 25% in 2050, from 73.5 million in 2024 to 55.4 million.

A stark example of the looming labour crisis is a projected shortage of almost 800,000 workers in the IT industry by 2030.

* The headline of this story was adjusted for greater accuracy on 29 October 2025.