Hitoshi Kato, Director

The milieu of the Japanese language and culture is rapidly changing. The number of learners of the Japanese language world-wide keeps increasing every year. I do not simply mean the number of those who study it at one of the secondary or higher level educational facilities, but, the number of those who acquire high-level proficiency in the language by learning it in private institutes such as language schools or by themselves as well (although they may not show up in the official statistics,). Now there are many ways, such as via internet, in which people can come into contact with Japanese language and culture. Attending an educational institute is not the only option anymore. The students at our center show this change as well, as not only is their number on the rise, but the variety in their proficiency has increased as well.

In order to raise the number of ex-change students, many institutes started study courses in English, but it is only recently that people finally started to realize that a certain level of knowledge about Japanese language and culture is needed not only if they have to work in Japan, but even in their home countries after their return. While becoming experts in their respective fields is a prerequisite, one cannot say that their education “in Japan” was complete if they only managed to learn a minimum level of Japanese language.

At our center (including the time when we were called the “Special Course for Foreign Students”) we already have more than 60 years’ worth of experience in this field, and we did not simply let the time pass by, but we have always coped with the global and domestic changes in Japanese language education.

In April, 2011 our institute got certified as a “Cooperative Joint-use Center for Japanese Language and Culture Education” and in April, 2016 our certificate has been renewed for the second 5-year term based on our achievements in the previous term. Our “Joint-use Center” aims to cope with the changes in global education and the domestic needs. In this term, we plan to reevaluate the way we assess the Japanese language proficiency and evolve into an institute that can cope with the increased variety of the students, while on the other hand, we plan to provide our resources in a form of “distance education” to answer the domestic needs.

Our center will continue to strive to accomplish our responsibility as a “Joint-use Center” that connects Japan to the World.