A lonely world: Japan's latest export: jaded students who have few hopes of finding fruitful careers at home

Japan, Inc., May, 2003 by Debbi Gardiner

NOZOMU SHINOZAKI'S STAY AT West Harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, was meant to be a respite from Japan. The 22-year-old from Yokohama, with his parents' support, enrolled in the New Zealand chapter of the International Columbus Academy, a non-profit group designed to help troubled Japanese teenagers. School director Kutso Kanamori had said years earlier that the academy was designed to offer students "a chance to experience childhood." But far from home, Shinozaki seems to have been more lost than ever. On February 27, he died from head injuries. Nine Japanese students have been charged with the young man's kidnapping and assault, according to news reports, and all but one entered New Zealand without visas. Kanamori is also in trouble for obstructing police justice.

Shinozaki's death highlights the dark side of Japan's penchant for overseas studying. A record number of Japanese students are heading abroad these days, but many of them are doing so because of a complete lack of hope and opportunity in their homeland.

The New Zealand murder raises some ugly issues. New Zealand's immigration, health and education officials were working to understand how the Japanese students entered the country and how the school existed in the first place, since it was not registered. On March 5, New Zealand politician Winston Peters said the death of the student was a sign that immigration was "out of control." Earlier, Peters said New Zealand is being used as "a dumping ground for Japan's troubled youths."

For decades young Japanese have studied on their parents savings in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Typically, students would study English or professional disciplines for a few months, then head back to Japan to jobs that would put their precious skills to work. But now, the continuing slump back home has prompted more students to try to find jobs overseas.

The number of Japanese students studying abroad is at its highest yet. Almost 47,000 Japanese students were studying in the US in 2001 and 2002, according to the most recent report by the Institute of International Education, a non-profit group. That's up 20 percent from a decade ago. There are more students from Japan on US campuses than students from any other East Asian group, the group's annual report said.

During the last two years, the number of Japanese coming to the US to study has risen 40 percent, says Chiey Nomura, director of the ARC International Educational Consulting Office, a non-profit support group for overseas students in Los Angeles. More students want to extend their stays in the US, she says, citing as an example the 30 percent rise in Japanese students applying for internships with companies in the US in the last two years.

Terry Simon, director of the Texas Intensive English Program, a private language school, says Japanese stay the longest out of any student group. Europeans tend to stay at the school three months, whereas the average stay for Japanese students is seven months. "Japanese just don't seem to be in a hurry to leave. They are the only group we have that asks to move down a level in order to stay longer," Simon says.

Part of this exodus is natural, education experts say. Like students from any country, "Japanese students tend to study abroad more when there is economic turmoil back home," says Amy Baker, the editor of Language Travel magazine, a trade publication in London. "It's the perfect time to build skills."

But today's exodus is also sparked by fear. Many students say they worry about not finding a job upon returning home. Anecdotal evidence and unemployment figures only bolster those worries. Unemployment stood at 5.5 percent in January, but many more people are under-employed, working part-time jobs to make ends meet.

The job market shows some signs of improvement--the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper, found that Japanese companies plan to hire 5 percent more college graduates in fiscal 2004, for example--but the overall picture for young people is bleak.

The problem goes deeper than just finding a job, students say. The gifted ones know they can find something in Japan, but they worry they will have to take jobs that are dull, uninspiring or just plain awful.

Take the case of Kiyomi, an overseas student who asked that only his first name be used. He is from Osaka, has a bachelor's degree in business from a university there and has spent over two years studying English at the Broward Community Center (BCC) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Over a cup of coffee at the Starbuck's on Los Olos Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Kiyomi explains how his parents pay his rent, expenses and tuition. Kiyomi doesn't seem proud of this; after all, he's 28. But if this is what it takes to secure his dream of working as a flight attendant, then so be it, he says. Kiyomi says he was supposed to return last April but couldn't bear the thought of it. He says he worries about losing his English abilities and not finding a job in Japan. "When I'm home (in Osaka), my friends complain about their jobs. Everyone fantasizes about quitting--but nobody ever does," he says. He is quiet for a while, then adds, "I don't want to move back to Japan and wind up like that."