Mr. Miyata Naoaki, JICA representative and Prof. Satoshi Miyazaky, Waseda University representative, rendered the rationale for establishing a Japanese language centre in Southeast Asia emphasizing the role of the centre not only for Vietnam but also for Southeast Asia as an upcoming leading centre in the region.

According to JEES 2013 statistics, the demand for learning Japanese in Southeast Asia is on the increase. Currently, the number of people learning Japanese in Vietnam is fast increasing; it is envisaged that in five years’ time Vietnam will become No. 1 nation in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of Japanese language learners.

While the number of people learning Japanese in Vietnam is fast increasing, there is a shortage of teachers of Japanese. The representative of JICA and that of Waseda University also discussed and proposed the teaching of Japanese to VJU’s students in the future. The establishing of a Japanese language centre will help VJU’s students and faculty better understand Japanese culture, contributing a bridge for fruitful cooperation relations between Vietnam and Japan.

Mr. Vũ Anh Dũng, Head of the VJU Management Board, highly appreciated the idea of establishing a Japanese language centre in Southeast Asia projected towards a leading centre in the region. VJU, JICA and Waseda University will join efforts in studying and thoroughly reviewing the proposal based on the upcoming training model in VJU.

Glimpses of Waseda University Graduate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics:

Institute for Japanese Language Education, Graduate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics, Waseda University.

Graduates from the named institute are working not only in Japan but also in many other countries around the world, such as South Korea, China, Thailand, Taiwan ... The main task of the institute is to train Japanese language education specialists  with the motto of group-communication-based Japanese language education practical research. A typical feature of the institute is that it welcomes a wide range of students worldwide. Each student with his or her own personality and culture is actively involved in the discussion of various topics on Japanese education, contributing to the improvement of the institute’s training quality.