I was really happy to see Japan featured in the ICEF Podcast‘s final “Keys to the Market” segment of 2024. The ICEF podcast is one of my favorites in the international education space. Lots of good stuff in there, and it only comes out once a month. Don’t sleep on it!
The hosts talk about the Japanese government’s plans to increase the numbers of both inbound and outbound students in coming years. Most people have long been aware of Japan as a sending nation, but it has attracted a ton of attention in recent years as a receiving nation.
A mildly interesting factoid: Japan has been my number one source of revenue every year I started doing this stuff in 2011. However, each year since about 2015 it has represented a smaller and smaller percentage of my overall revenue picture. The steady decline of the yen means students are more likely to seek out assistance from domestic sources. And in more recent years students have been taking a much wider range of language tests than in the past so they are less likely to need my services. The latter development may come as a bit of a surprise to some, as the old duopoly was thought to have an unbreakable grip on the market.