More Japanese to come, due to cheap English course in the PH

TalkShop trains Japanese, photo from TalkShop

The Philippines know as one of the most fluent English-speaking Asian country and despite its status as a developing nation, the Philippines and it reputation is causing an increase in Japanese visitors. The said foreigners are here to study English on budget for a various number of reasons.

For either a Japanese university entrance exam or the 2020 Tokyo Games, the Japanese opt to study in the PH due to both the reputation and proximity of the Philippines from their motherland. There was a total number of 584,180 Japanese visitors in 2017 which steadily increased to 9.1 percent compared to 2016’s statistics.

“The number of travelers aiming to study English is surging. About 100 Japanese junior high and high schools implemented study abroad programs in 2017,” said the Philippine Department of Tourism office in Tokyo.

Other than the nation’s excellence in speaking in English and its close proximity to Japan, many choose the Philippines over other English-speaking nations due to its low cost living.
And with the plans of the Japanese government to overhaul its English-language test for all university entrance exams starting the academic year on April 2021, several cram Japanese schools are now implementing to send their students to Philippines on vacation.

MK Co., a Kyoto-based taxi and limousine operator stated that other than the training program that they started in the Philippines in 2015, there were also English programs in Australia and England.

While Maasaki Shibata, a human resources management official of MK Co., explained why the Japanese choose the Philippines over other neighboring countries. He verified that the Philippines is indeed closed and costs extravagantly less compared to Malaysia and Singapore.

Source: japantimes.co.jp