The government and ruling parties are moving quickly to establish a system for foreign residents to learn Japanese and the rules of daily life, and have held the first meeting on a Japanese-language and daily-life learning program. They have also presented a plan to allow online participation from before entry into Japan, with the government centrally managing participants’ learning records.
The government and ruling parties are developing a Japanese-language and daily-life learning program for foreign residents, and held the first meeting of an expert working group in August. The program will cover foreign nationals, including accompanying family members, and the policy is to make it available online before entry into Japan while centrally tracking participants’ learning records.
The Liberal Democratic Party called for the development and preparation of teaching materials and systems on the assumption that a pilot program would begin in fiscal 2028. It also recommended using participation status and level of understanding as factors in residence screening decisions. The backdrop is the current situation in which insufficient understanding of Japanese leads to friction in local communities and delays in administrative procedures.
As disparities in access to learning opportunities among municipalities and the securing of personnel and funding become focal issues, the government provides partial subsidies for the cost of Japanese-language classes. However, a fiscal 2024 survey found that 722 municipalities lacked such classes, and approximately 170,455 foreign residents lived in those areas. A shortage of funding for the subsidy program is a challenge.
As the expansion of foreign-worker intake increases the administrative burden on municipalities where foreign residents live, there is broad agreement in principle on a proposal to secure funding by raising fees for residence procedures. Proposals for companies to bear part of the cost are also under discussion, but the specific scope and proportions of the burden have not yet been determined.
The division of costs between the national and local governments, as well as the scope of the burden on companies accepting foreign workers, has yet to take concrete shape, and discussions are expected to continue.