Japanese university under investigation for losing track of hundreds of foreign students

Many of the missing are now assumed to have taken up work illegally in the country, which is suffering a severe labour shortage

It is not the first time the institution has had foreign students go missing, either – 264 disappeared in 2016 and 493 the year after

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University students in Tokyo. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:49pm, 19 Mar 2019Updated: 12:13am, 20 Mar 2019

A Japanese university is under investigation for losing track of almost 700 of its foreign students, with many now assumed to be working illegally in the country.

More than 8,000 students are enrolled at the privately run Tokyo University of Social Welfare, 5,133 of whom are foreign nationals – primarily from China, Vietnam and Nepal.

Tokyo University of Social Welfare. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This is not the first time that the institution has had foreign students go missing, either – 264 were unaccounted for in 2016, with a further 493 disappearing a year later. Japan’s education ministry, which is carrying out the investigation into the institution, is aware of its poor track record, according to domestic media reports.

Japan’s falling birth rate and shrinking population means that universities that were set up in more profitable times have little choice but to court foreign students.

Japan’s labour shortage proves deadly for foreign workers

“I see this happening with a lot of universities,” said Makoto Watanabe, an associate professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University. “There are fewer and fewer young people in Japan, but the same number of universities. So they need to bring in students from somewhere else.”

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