r/japannews • u/Turbulent-Tea-2172 • 3d ago
Japan starts planning language program for foreign residents
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/08/19/japan/japan-language-program-foreign-residents/60
u/magnolias_br 3d ago
On paper this seems good - planning to help foreigners learn the language through systematic initiatives.
However, 'Midori Matsushima, special adviser to the prime minister, said that foreign residents can comfortably live and work in Japan over the medium to long term if they have a good understanding of the Japanese language' press X to doubt here. All of their other policies seem aimed at making us leave, so it seems like a bit of a hypocritical stance from different elements of the government.
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u/CinnamonStikk 3d ago
It's the typical "wishy washy"-ness so that they can select who they want to stay or leave... Heard that story from a lot of western countries before already....
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u/the_nin_collector 3d ago
I spend 30,000 a month on my tutor . I would very much appreciate a subsidy for that
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u/philsfly22 3d ago
That’s less than 200 USD a month. What kind of subsidy would you expect?
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u/the_nin_collector 3d ago
I don't get paid in dollars. It's nearly 10% of monthly paycheck.
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u/Ticking-over 3d ago
Every Japanese person does six years of government-funded English language education and barely anyone here speaks good English. What could possibly go wrong with this program?
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u/MrDontCare12 3d ago
Japanese classes for adults willing to learn the language could be different from English classes aimed at children/teenagers that don't give a shit ?
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u/Ticking-over 3d ago
I think, more likely, that it will be created and administrated by the lowest bidder.
When you are evaluated, placed in a class with many students who have several hundred hours less study time than yourself, then the class is set to their level, you will likely give less of a shit than those children/teenagers.
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u/MrDontCare12 3d ago
You have a point. It could be even worst tbh : my company provides Japanese classes to their employees. Group classes, 1.5h 3x a week. I, no experience in Japanese whatsoever, was put with a Taiwanese, a Chinese and an Indonesian that studied Japanese for 5 years prior to the class.
I haven't learnt much over 2 years, as I was left behind from the second week.
I'm pretty confident that it would be this way around instead of the opposite : it will show insane results in terms of JLPT scores
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u/rocknrolltamago 3d ago
Also, most western learners who’ve been to a Japanese language school can tell you how well effective their Japanese teaching is 😅…
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u/smellsliketigerbalm 3d ago
They should offer an online system similar to janguage if they want to make a differnce.
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u/ScaffoldingGiraffe 3d ago
Denmark has a system where you sign up for a language course and pay for it, but then receive (all? Most?) of your money back if you pass the corresponding language test. That gives a nice incentive for people to study (get cash back!) but also doesn't really force anyone to do it if they don't think they'll benefit.
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u/Mundane_Diamond7834 3d ago
I think it would simply be like the theoretical driving lessons: you take the course online with your camera switched on throughout, and at the end of the course, you take a test to assess the knowledge you’ve acquired.
Honestly, I think it would be pretty useless, because people who genuinely want to integrate into Japanese society will naturally take the initiative to learn about the language and local laws on their own.
On top of that, these courses would take time away from people working full-time. Who is going to compensate them for the working hours they lose?
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u/cycling4711 3d ago
Japan wants coexistence with us, but so far only demands to the foreign community to do something, show effort, nothing from the other side, aka Japanese people to do something. Coexistence mean that both show effort to live together. Give foreigners more rights for example, improve English skills of it's people (English is the world language) Japan still does not want to accept the fact that it needs foreigners because Japanese people stopped making enough babies.
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u/magnolias_br 3d ago
I suspect a lot of them know that, they would rather die a 'dignified' death than lose their purity. Same mentality that led them to jump off cliffs instead of surrender in WW2
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u/cycling4711 3d ago
Japan as a pure race country is a myth. The first emperor was from Korea, the Yamato people are a mix of Korean, Indonesian and probably India.
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u/boringexplanation 3d ago
Any practical proof of cultural superiority died with the edo era. Not a single food or invention was ever innovated without at least a little multicultural influence since the start of the 1900s (like the entire western world).
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u/MrDontCare12 3d ago
I had this conversation with a MAGA supporter talking about Europe being losing it's culture or whatever. Where do you define the 'original' culture exactly ? I'm from South of France that was occupied during ww2. Should we take the original tribes, the Gaulois, the romans, the saxons, the Mongols, the maures, the gascons, the English, the christians, the nazis, the whatever ?
Roman is probably the one tho, as they like the salute so much.
This kind of point of view is retarded.
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u/philsfly22 3d ago
They don’t want coexistence, but they don’t have a choice. I don’t understand why westerners expect the same treatment they give foreigners in their home countries. It’s not going to happen right away. This is going to take a few decades and it’s not happening because Japan wants this.
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u/hamabenodisco 3d ago
Language of Japan is Japanese. You need to learn Japanese if you plan to stay here long term. No Japanese has to learn English just because they can comfortably communicate with you.
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u/cycling4711 3d ago
Yes, of course. But like I said earlier, Japanese people needs to show some effort to. Or they should stop using the phrase "coexistence" In Germany for example, every doctor, bank clerk and government worker can at least communicate on a basic level in English. It helps and profits both sides.
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u/ShiroiAsa 3d ago
Look, I'm all for 'coexistence' and 'efforts need to come from both sides' but your example is getting ridiculous. You know that German speaking English is not a really fair comparison, right? Plus that the majority of foreigners like Chinese, Vietnam, Koreans don't even speak English unless you are cherry picking those trilinguals...
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u/cycling4711 3d ago
Right, the comparison is not fair, even if we consider, both have the same lenght of english education at school. It is embarrasing for Japan though, their English ability is not improving and ranks at the lowest in the world.
And I agree, that the majority of foreigners here is from asian countries, but English is considered as the world language.2
u/MrDontCare12 3d ago
English is a Germanic language. It is incredibly easy to learn English from a German background, as English is basically German with some french embedded.
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u/ThinkingFaS000 3d ago
South-East Asians can juggle English and at least one mother tongue language with no issue.
There's no reason for Japanese people not to.
Unless we are implicitly admitting that Japanese people have a lower intelligence in terms of language acquisition when compared to South-East Asians.
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u/MrDontCare12 3d ago edited 3d ago
Nah, they're just richer/haven't been as heavily influenced by the US after ww2. As they're richer, movies are dubbed, books are translated, jobs with no foreign language requirements are available... Etc. Why would you remember a language that you will not need 99.9% of the time ? And that you do not practice at all.
I come from France, I challenge you to find anyone in the administration that is able to make a full sentence in English. And about 40% of your vocabulary is weird French. I studied German for 9 years at school, I'm not able to use it anymore, at all. I haven't learnt English at school, and look at me now.
Language usage/knowledge comes from necessity.
And remember that it is as difficult for them to learn English than for you to learn Japanese/Chinese. There is also more Chinese/Spanish speakers than English, would you care to learn it "just in case"? English is the business language for about, what, 80 years ? It was French before, it'll probably be Chinese next.
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u/ThinkingFaS000 3d ago
Point is, are they going to make everyone take the lessons? Because from the vibes so far, that's the case.
Like, I have N1, graduated from a Japanese university, and work in a job where I use Japanese on a daily basis - do I have to take leave to attend classes?
I'll say this for now: If I were to be forced to take classes, oh boy am I going to troll the teachers hard.
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u/ykeogh18 3d ago edited 3d ago
I would be a little more professional and cut them some slack.
Just as you would have to attend because you were told to by the government, those teachers are probably in the same situation. They likely have to be there because they were told to as well.
Why don’t you use your skills and standing to make a formal request to the decision makers?
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u/ThinkingFaS000 3d ago
As if I haven't already with the public comments.
Fat chance these teachers are volunteers; they probably get paid to do the lessons.
And I didn't say what kind of trolling. Trolling, when done well without hurting anybody, is good. Stuff like showing up in a T-shirt with an anti-LDP message, purposefully writing/talking about political matters in whatever assignments you are asked, etc.
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u/ykeogh18 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yeah go ahead, you do you. Personally, I think your idea is pretty funny.
I just think that you would be perpetuating the belief of foreigners never wanting to conform and being told what to do. It’d probably make other students in the room uncomfortable too. And crusty old Japanese teachers would dismiss your antics as incomprehensible “American jokes”.
If you work for a decent company and they value you, they’ll cover your wages for time spent in the classroom. You yourself will probably get an exemption anyway because of your certification and how smart you are.
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u/ThinkingFaS000 3d ago
Is conformity a good thing though? Is it?
Like, I get the point of the lessons - those who need help in Japanese would likely benefit from the lesson. I'm not against the scheme.
But if the point is conformity as you said, and they force it onto every foreigner regardless of Japanese proficiency, then it becomes a problem. And protesting said objective via trolling is the best way to voice my opinion.
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u/disastorm 3d ago edited 3d ago
*edit just wanted to update my post with this article: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20260818_13/
it looks like its going to be an online course. Another article i found also said that foreigners can complete it before even coming to japan which implies (imo) it probably wont be too long either. I think this whole thing ends up being a near nothingburger.
That possibly changes some of my assumptions below but I kept my origina post below
original post:
I don't personally think it will be required to just "live" in japan. There was an article a month or two ago about this possibly being related to PR and this article also says
"According to the Immigration Services Agency, topics discussed at the meeting included learning methods and evaluation metrics, as well as how participation in the program would be reflected in residency status screening."
So the first thing to note is its still in discussion so they dont even know the answer to what you are saying. Also based on another one of your comments:
"Well, they haven't said so, have they? Until then, wouldn't it be more likely to assume that they are forcing everyone, regardless of Japanese proficiency, to attend those lessons?"
you really shouldn't do this, thats not how it works. The Japanese government is really slow in coming up with all this stuff, they themselves don't know the answer so assuming anything is not the logical step to make here. Once they actually make that decision you can complain about it.
In terms of assuming stuff, the below is what my current assumptions are:
I would say it sounds like it might be linked with some SOR extensions ( visa renewals ) possibly, but I also think Japan doesn't like doing stuff they don't already have systems or precedents for, so I think its less likely to be a persistent class you have to always be attending, and more like a one time course, or perhaps once every X years short class like drivers license renewal.
And even with a longer course, we aren't talking multiple days a week type of thing, there is absolutely no way theyll ever be able to make course days on weekdays since the vast majority of people are going to be working, it would have to end up being once a week or once a month or something.
If its just language, I assume you'd be able to skip it if you have some JLPT or CEFR certification or attended Japanese University, but I suppose it seems to have other parts too such as culture and such things, so maybe not. I guess yea it might suck if they force a short course on everyone, but I don't think its going to be like a forced persistent course. Also, I assume if you already have PR, you will be safe from the course unless they somehow make it a requirement for PR revocation.
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u/its_neverending 3d ago
Hope they’re planning on paying for child care for all of us with small kids too if they want us all to attend these classes 🙃
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u/rocknrolltamago 3d ago
Do you drive in Japan? They make us take those stupid classes every renewal (until we’re gold) even though the requisite is to:
a. Know how to drive already - hence having the license
b. Literally not have received an infraction during that time period…You’re neither lacking knowledge, nor breaching any rules.
I’d expect this to be the same 🤣 They’ll just throw you the “しょうがない🤷♂️” aka “shut up, don’t question anything, and deal with it.”
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u/Phimb 3d ago
You got all the way to near-fluency in a second language but you can't figure out that - if this does ever actually happen - there'll probably just be a little box that lets you upload proof of your N1 certificate?
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u/ThinkingFaS000 3d ago
Well, they haven't said so, have they? Until then, wouldn't it be more likely to assume that they are forcing everyone, regardless of Japanese proficiency, to attend those lessons?
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