Vietnamese students turn to Japan in hope of getting good jobs

The number of Vietnamese studying in Japan grew more than 12-fold from 2010-2016 to around 54,000.

They now account for nearly a quarter of international students in Japan, behind only Chinese students, who make up 41 percent but whose numbers have leveled off in recent years, Bloomberg cited the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) as saying in a Thursday report.

The growing presence of Japanese companies in Vietnam has students and their parents thinking about studying in Japan in the hope of landing a well-paid job with a Japanese company, Itsuro Tsutsumi, director at JASSO’s student-exchange department, told Bloomberg.

“I chose Japan for my children because it costs less than other countries and has a good education system, instilling good discipline in students,” the newswire quoted Tran Thi Quynh My, an official at the State Bank of Vietnam, as saying.

“After studying in Japan my children will have a better chance of finding a good job when they get back to work in Vietnam since there are more and more Japanese companies investing in our country,” she said.

Vietnam’s economy expanded by more than 6 percent for a second consecutive year in 2016, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Japanese companies are increasingly looking to Southeast Asia where incomes and consumption are likely to keep growing for years, Bloomberg quoted Shinobu Kikuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo, as saying.

Japan is aggressively recruiting students from the region in the hope they will help enhance economic ties with their home countries in the future, said the Bloomberg report.