EXCLUSIVE: Japan to penalize universities over missing foreign students

April 12, 2019

Tokyo--The Japanese government plans to penalize universities with many foreign students whose whereabouts are unknown, Jiji Press learned on Thursday.

The move is included in a draft of the government's response to the issue of missing foreign students, which came to light following the recent revelation that about 700 foreign students including those from Vietnam have been missing at Tokyo University of Social Welfare since April 2018.

According to the draft, the education ministry will hold hearings with or inspect universities with many dropouts among foreign students, if necessary. If the universities fail to meet its instructions for improvement, the ministry will label them as lacking the proper management of students.

The education ministry will then report these universities to the Justice Ministry. Following the reports, the Immigration Services Agency, affiliated to the Justice Ministry, will apply tougher standards in screenings of visa applications from the universities' prospective students.

The agency will also consider shortening the length of visas for the universities' students to some one year. Otherwise student visas expire in four years and three months.

Furthermore, students at the problematic universities will be required to present documents including scholarship and bank balance certificates.

The government aims to implement these measures at an early date.

It also plans to take measures on students at Japanese language schools, demanding the schools report on their students' part-time work, which is limited to 28 hours a week or less.

The government aims to implement the measures on Japanese language school students as soon as after hearing public comments later this month. Jiji Press