Chinese students are still heading to Japan's elite universities even as relations between Beijing and Tokyo have turned frosty. Demand to escape China's fierce university entrance competition, combined with a historically weak yen that has lowered the cost of studying abroad, has pushed Japan into the spotlight as an alternative. Japanese universities, competing for students as the domestic birth rate falls, have also stepped up efforts to recruit from overseas.
A cram school in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward that prepares Chinese students for Japanese university entrance exams produced 55 students admitted to the University of Tokyo, the country's most prestigious school, for the 2026 academic year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 15th. The school has about 3,000 students in total, including those taking online courses.
The school offers Japanese-language classes at prestigious middle and high schools in parts of China where demand for overseas study is strong, and holds information sessions on studying in Japan as part of its push to attract top students. Last year it also began offering job-placement services, helping Chinese graduates of Japanese universities write applications and prepare for interviews as they enter the local labor market. The school has widened its support from university admissions through to employment in Japan in an effort to draw more students.
Enrollment figures bear out the demand. The number of Chinese students in Japan bottomed out at 103,882 in 2022 after falling in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, then resumed growing. Although ties between China and Japan cooled late last year, China still sends more students to Japan than any other country.
China's punishing entrance exam competition is cited as a key reason students look to Japanese universities. A total of 12.9 million people registered for the gaokao, China's college entrance exam, for the 2026 academic year. That is more than 26 times the 490,000 test-takers who sat Japan's common university entrance exam over the same period. Even accounting for a population ratio of about 11.5 to 1 between the two countries, the competition in China is far more intense.
The market for study in Japan is also broadening beyond China to Southeast Asia and Mongolia. Japan's exam-preparation industry is working to recruit students from other Asian countries alongside those from China.
The weaker yen has reduced the cost of studying in Japan, while Japanese universities' recruitment drives are supporting demand. With the school-age population shrinking because of the low birth rate, some universities have introduced degree programs taught in English and aimed at foreign students, widening the options for applicants whose Japanese is limited.
Still, the share of foreign students in Japan remains lower than in leading English-speaking destinations. International and foreign students accounted for 5% of enrollment at Japanese higher education institutions in 2023, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The figure was 23% in Britain, 31% in Australia and 22% in Canada.