Majority of Japan’s international students remain in country after graduation

22 May 2018

A recent survey has found 74.5 percent of Japan’s international students choose to remain in the country after graduating, Nippon reports.

The Japan Student Services Organisation (Jasso) conducted the survey to assess the number of international students who choose to stay in Japan even after their studies come to an end.

It found just under a quarter of graduates returned to their home countries, two percent moved to a new country and the remaining near-three-quarters stayed in Japan.

Around three-quarters of international students in Japan stay on after completing a course of study. https://t.co/EPst8IyPt0

— Nippon.com (@nippon_en) May 21, 2018

The survey analysed data from students who completed programmes at Japanese universities and other higher education institutes, excluding language schools. Over 80 percent of the international students who graduated from colleges of technology and junior colleges chose to stay in Japan and around 70 percent of university and graduate school students remained in Japan after their studies were complete.

Japan’s number of international graduates remaining in the country saw a drop with doctoral students, where less than half of students stayed, most of them returning to their home countries.

The full results as published by Nippon are below.

Academic level	Employment	Further study	Other*	Total
Doctorate program	19.4 percent	1.8 percent	24.3 percent	45.5 percent
Master’s program	34.2 percent	16.6 percent	11.3 percent	62.2 percent
Degree course for professional job	34.4 percent	6.0 percent	11.8 percent	52.3 percent
University (undergraduate)	41.8 percent	17.2 percent	9.2 percent	68.2 percent
Junior college	49.2 percent	25.2 percent	7.3 percent	81.7 percent
College of technology (kōtō senmon gakkō)	10.2 percent	77.1 percent	1.2 percent	88.6 percent
Vocational college (senmon gakkō)	28.0 percent	43.8 percent	15.3 percent	87.1 percent
Preparatory educational course	5.0 percent	81.9 percent	1.0 percent	87.8 percent
Total	31.1 percent	30.6 percent	12.7 percent	74.5 percent