With the weak yen showing no signs of abating – and Japan’s government showing no signs of wanting to stop it – it’s become harder for people in Japan to travel overseas. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it may counteract that with a new program that would help students fulfill their dreams of studying abroad.
Tokyo governor Koike Yuriko says the metropolitan government is looking at a proposal that would give students several stipends for short-term study abroad activities. Students would receive up to 900,000 yen (USD $5,708) for travel and course fees.
For medium- and long-term study abroad activities, the metropolitan government would grant a monthly stipend of 150,000 yen ($951). For students staying abroad for a full year, the government could grant students up to as much as 3.15 million yen ($19,982) in support.
The grants would go to 500 students planning short-term study abroad and 100 students planning long-term study abroad. The Tokyo government hopes to start the program by next summer.
As a record number of tourists pour into Japan, more Japanese than ever are choosing to stay at home rather than travel abroad. Travel agency JTB predicts that 14.1 million people will travel abroad in 2025 – a mere 70.3% of the number who took an international trip in 2019. Many say the weak yen makes travel abroad hard or impossible.
Does Tokyo have an unfair advantage?
The plan is one of many recent initiatives that Tokyo is spearheading to better support its citizens and employees. The metropolis made headlines last month when it announced it would enable government workers to choose a four-day workweek. The metropolitan area has also announced funding for free medical care for kids and free school lunches.
The announcement is more good news for Tokyo residents. However, it’s drawing criticism that the metropolitan area’s wealth gives it an unfair advantage over other regional governments.
Writing on Yahoo! News JP, economist Kadokura Takashi argued that, while this is a good move, “it should be enacted by the central government, not a regional government, so it applies uniformly to the entire country.”
“Once again, a regional government’s coloring outside the lines,” another user griped, noting that Tokyo’s concentration of major corporations gives it far more wealth to work with than other areas of Japan. They suggested better distributing Tokyo’s tax dollars across the country.
Towns and villages across Japan are shrinking as people – especially women – flee to major cities like Tokyo for greater economic opportunity. Japan’s central government is searching for strategies to counteract this, including one ham-fisted attempt that would have seen it pay women to leave the city and get married in the countryside. That plan was eventually axed after social media users and the press panned it as sexist.
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