Studying in Japan: Not the "Promised Land"

(Baonghean) - If you visit classifieds websites in Nghe An, you will easily come across advertisements for studying in Japan with very attractive introductions and promises. Walking around the streets of Vinh City, it is not difficult to see signs of Japanese study abroad consulting centers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Japanese study abroad consulting and recruitment services are "springing up like mushrooms after the rain".

The promises are enticing.

According to the advertisements online and on the flyers of these centers, the conditions for studying abroad in Japan that they offer are mostly quite easy, such as only needing to graduate from high school, not requiring prior knowledge of Japanese, receiving 6 months of free Japanese language training... Along with that are attractive promises such as: Only studying one session at school, having time to work part-time with a salary of 30 million VND or more, not only enough to cover tuition and living expenses but also being able to save money to send home; if completing the course, a degree with international value will be awarded... Also because of these easy conditions and attractive promises, although the initial cost for a study abroad trip is quite high, many people still come to these centers with the hope of changing their lives in the "land of cherry blossoms".

Websites advertising Japanese study abroad recruitment.

In the role of a customer, I went to VS Study Abroad Consulting Company with an office on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street (Vinh City), an establishment considered to have a "reputation" for study abroad consulting. After asking about wanting to go to Japan to study abroad to find a job with income, a consultant quickly talked to me and introduced me to the Japanese study abroad recruitment program for those who want to both study and work, according to which the salary will be 30 million VND/month. At the same time, he emphasized that this program is "very suitable for poor children with average educational level".

With a cost of 30 million VND, the Company will take care of visas, airfares and other expenses such as translation, document processing, etc. In addition, students must prepare 190 - 210 million VND to pay tuition fees for the first year and 6 months of dormitory fees. As for part-time jobs in Japan, students will have to contact them themselves (?!). When I asked, "What should I do if I can't find a part-time job in Japan or the part-time job's salary is too low to cover the costs?"

This staff explained: “Training schools in Japan are like a business organization. They can only maintain the school and classes when students pay tuition to them. Therefore, supporting you with part-time jobs is the responsibility of the school where students study, because only when students have part-time jobs that earn money will they have money to pay tuition to the school in the following years.” While waiting and being consulted, I observed that there were quite a lot of customers coming to this center, most of them were under 30 years old, some had graduated from university or college but had not found a stable job for a long time, and some had just graduated from high school and had not passed the university entrance exam for several years in a row…

Not the “promised land”

To better understand studying in Japan, through friends, I contacted Ms. Tran Thanh H, who has been a study abroad consultant for more than 1 year and has worked for 2 Japanese study abroad consulting companies. After a friendly conversation, Ms. H. said: “After more than 1 year of doing this job, I have found that most of the cases with the need to study in Japan are children of poor farming families, through introductions, wanting to go to Japan to find a job with a high income (compared to in the country). And what we advise them about studying abroad conditions, study and work conditions, salary levels... are also all that the leaders convey to us when hiring us.

Through social networks, I still keep in touch with people who have flown to Japan and many of them complained to me that life while studying and working in Japan is not as easy as advised. Japan is a country with a large number of foreigners, but the Japanese only value the national language, so all communication is in Japanese, very little English is used. No Japanese person would spend money to hire someone who does not know Japanese at all to work for them, while most of the students from Nghe An who come to Japan have a low cultural level, limited ability to absorb foreign languages ​​in general and Japanese in particular, so it is very difficult to find part-time jobs.

From Ms. H's introduction, through the social network Facebook, I chatted with Mr. Ho Anh T. (born in 1988) in Ben Thuy ward (Vinh city) - a student who went to study abroad in Tokyo - Japan since April this year, through a consulting and recruitment center for studying abroad with a cost of 240 million VND. T. said: "Only after a short time did I realize that the reality was not exactly as advised". According to Japanese law, international students are only allowed to work 4 hours/day and are not allowed to work more than 28 hours/week.

The average hourly wage for part-time work in Japan is from 750 yen or more (about 160,000 VND), so if you work all days of the week, according to regulations, you can earn from 18 to 30 million VND per month, depending on the job. However, the monthly tuition fee ranges from 8 to 12 million VND depending on the school, the cost of accommodation and transportation is also from 10 million VND or more, not to mention expensive areas like Tokyo, Osaka... so the amount of money international students save is not worth much. In my case, because my Japanese is not good, after many interviews, I was accepted to wash dishes at a restaurant in Tokyo, I earn nearly 30 million VND per month, but living expenses account for nearly 90% of my income.

To have money to send home as expected, I had to work delivering newspapers from 2am to 7am. Many days I went to class without eating or sleeping enough, so my studies were not effective. In Tokyo today, there are quite a few Vietnamese students who, because they cannot find a job and cannot afford the cost of studying and living, have to drop out of school, work illegally, do not pay train tickets, steal... Some cases have jobs but are denied visa extensions because they are discovered to have worked more than the prescribed number of hours. On the other hand, at the end of a school year, most schools organize a test, if students meet the requirements, they are allowed to continue studying, not extending it for 3-4 years as advised. There are many cases where Vietnamese students do not study hard enough and fail this test, and are denied visa extensions.

In addition, the current operations of some Japanese study abroad consulting centers are still unclear, even showing signs of fraud. Typically, on December 5, nearly 20 people, including 9 students and their parents, went to the office of VP International Cooperation and Trade Promotion Joint Stock Company on Le Nin Avenue to protest the company's unclear price increase. According to the students' reflection, the company had previously committed that in addition to tuition and accommodation costs, the company would only collect 30 million VND from the students to cover visa costs, file processing, airfare, etc. However, after the students had paid and the company had completed the procedures, the company suddenly announced that it would charge students an additional fee of 50 - 65 million VND without clearly explaining, putting the students in a "dilemma", very upset...

Need to be tightly managed

Objectively speaking, studying in Japan is a good opportunity for Vietnamese students to access the advanced education, science and technology of one of the most developed countries in the world. Moreover, students can both study and work, with quite high salaries. In particular, after graduating from vocational schools, students have the opportunity to stay in Japan to work. Therefore, Japan can be considered an ideal destination for those who are determined to study seriously, have ambition and the will to overcome difficulties. In fact, many international students have been successful when they have received proper and sufficient advice, clearly defining their long-term goals in this direction.

However, for studying abroad in Japan to develop sustainably and effectively, strict management by the authorities is needed. But at present, it seems that the management of studying abroad in general and studying abroad in Japan in particular has not been strictly implemented. Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha - Head of Vocational Education Department (Department of Education and Training) said: "According to preliminary statistics, in the whole province there are currently more than 20 units participating in consulting and recruiting students to study abroad in Japan. However, up to this point, only 8 units have been licensed by the Department of Education and Training to operate, but only 1 unit has sent a report on its activities after 6 months to the Department.

The reason is that currently, the management of facilities, centers, and study abroad consulting services belongs to the Departments of Education and Training through Decree 115/2010/ND-CP and Joint Circular No. 47/2011/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV dated October 19, 2011 of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Home Affairs regulating the responsibility for state management of education, but there is only a very general provision on the responsibility of the Department which is "to assist the provincial People's Committee in state management of service organizations sending people to study abroad on their own in accordance with the provisions of law". Therefore, up to now, study abroad consulting companies have not reported their activities to the Department, and conversely, the Department has no information about these companies, so it is not aware of the number and status of students in the province currently studying in Japan".

According to Mr. Ha, studying abroad in Japan is often a combination of studying and working, with an element of working abroad, so in the near future, in addition to issuing clearer regulations on studying abroad management, the Education sector also needs to have a coordination mechanism with the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to better manage this issue. Strengthening the review, inspection and assessment of the operational capacity of domestic consulting services, promptly detecting, preventing and strictly handling violations and fraud. In addition, consulting centers in this field must seriously screen and select subjects with the will to strive, have a sense of active learning and working; publicly inform learners about the contribution levels, costs and living, studying and working conditions in the host country. Students who wish to study abroad should also research carefully, find out multi-dimensional information, determine a serious attitude towards studying and working, be well-equipped with Japanese communication skills and absolutely comply with the laws of the host country.

Minh Quan