October 25, 2009

Enrollment Crisis Threatens Japan's Private Colleges

Some fill empty seats with foreign students, creating new problems

Enrollment Crisis Threatens Japan's Private Colleges 1-1

Fumi Sato, OnAsia.com

At St. Thomas U., in Amagasaki, which risks bankruptcy, this year's freshman class numbers 110, a quarter the size of a decade ago.

By David McNeill

Amagasaki, Japan

The first day of the semester should be one of the year's busiest, but it is immediately clear here at St. Thomas University that something is badly wrong. Apart from a sprinkling of students chatting near the entrance, the grounds are eerily quiet—closer to the atmosphere of a retirement home than a bustling city campus. Footsteps echo off the walls of deserted corridors. Students huddle around professors at the front of nearly empty classrooms.

Long before this small private

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