As many people know, studying abroad is not inexpensive. Besides the transportation costs of traveling to another country, there are expenses for finding accommodation, adapting to a new lifestyle in an unfamiliar place where you may not know where to buy affordable food and daily necessities. Of course, tuition fees are also involved, and international students sometimes have to bear additional costs.
However, many who have studied abroad say that even a short – term study abroad program can be life – changing. It broadens your horizons and opens up rich career paths that you may never have thought of before. Yuriko Koike, the mayor of Tokyo, is one of the proponents of studying abroad. Despite the high costs, she has announced that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to provide grants to students who want to study abroad.
Koike said on Sunday, when talking about this initiative, that the amount of financial support students receive will depend on various factors, including the cost of living in the host countries and the duration of their study abroad programs. For students on short – term programs (about 1 to 4 months), they can receive a maximum total grant of 900,000 yen (about $5,735) to cover travel and tuition expenses. For those on year – long programs, they can get up to 3.15 million yen, which includes a monthly allowance of 150,000 yen for “local activity expenses”, mainly for cultural and extracurricular activities outside the regular classroom curriculum.
To be eligible for this grant, applicants must be Japanese citizens, have a parent or guardian living in Tokyo, and be enrolled in a domestic university, technical college, or vocational school. In other words, this program aims to help students who are already pursuing academic goals to study overseas. In addition, the grants are only for students applying to study at overseas universities and cannot be used for language schools. Koike also said that there is no upper limit on the family income of the applicants.
Currently, Japanese young people show less interest and initiative in going abroad than previous generations. At the same time, the sharp depreciation of the yen has increased the economic pressure on those who are interested in studying abroad. Moreover, Japan’s aging population and other macro – economic factors are likely to make a global perspective increasingly important for Japanese professionals in the coming years. “Japan’s international competitiveness is declining,” Koike said when discussing the program, adding, “We need to accelerate investment in our young people and quickly cultivate talents who can contribute globally.”
Koike envisions that the program will initially provide grants for 500 short – term study abroad participants and 100 mid/long – term ones, and the first group of students will embark on their overseas study trips next summer.
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