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Return to Bulletin Home - May 2008 |
Report from Japan: "Everything was well organised and we made a number of great contacts in Japan. I look forward to developing these new relationships." After years of economic recovery, Japan is starting to post the kind of gains befitting its status as world's second largest economy. In fact, since 2005, Japan has outpaced growth rates in the US and European Union. Through the challenges of the 1990s and now the renewed strength of recent years, Japan has also remained one of the world's leading sources of international students. Tougher employment prospects in the 1990s fuelled interest in study abroad—particularly in English-language training as well as academic year abroad and career-building post-graduate studies. And now that the Japanese economy is back on track, growing consumer confidence and the country's legendary savings rates are expected to continue to drive demand for education in the years ahead.
Along with sending a steady flow of students abroad, Japan has emerged as an important student destination in its own right. 117,000 foreign students, the majority of them Chinese, studied in Japan in 2006, and Japanese institutions are drawing increasing numbers of students from China as well as further afield. The strength of the Japanese market was evident at the 2008 ICEF Japan Workshop (Tokyo, March 3–5). 252 delegates from 174 organisations and 16 countries gathered in Tokyo this year for a programme of market intelligence seminars and an intensive schedule of nearly 2,000 one-to-one appointments. Seminar highlights included overviews of US and UK visa processing, an exploration of new agent partnership models by the University of Cincinnati's Jonathan Weller, and a session on marketing strategies for lesser-known study destinations by Spain's Johan van Wegen. "[The ICEF Japan Workshop] confirmed once again the professionalism of the ICEF organisation. I found very good new contacts in a very pleasant and comfortable space. All agents I met in the two-day workshop where really motivated and eager to find new programmes."—Augusto Merlini, Centro Fiorenza — International House Florence
Of the 150 Japanese agent delegates at the workshop, 61% were from Tokyo while the remaining 39% travelled to Tokyo from cities throughout Japan. Fourteen percent of these agents were attending their first ICEF workshop during this year's event in Tokyo—all of the agencies were carefully screened and selected based on their qualifications, professional standards, and position in the Japanese market. "The Japanese agent market is very sophisticated in its structure and operations," said Tiffany Egler, manager of ICEF's Agent Department. "We see best practices among the agents here that are based on extensive experience with a wide variety of students and destinations."
"A very well-organised event to meet with a lot of educators from all over the world. The evening dinner reception and lunchtime are really effective to meet and get to know people that I had met in the workshop"—Kazuyoshi Hirata, Hirata & Associates, Inc. The 2009 ICEF Japan Workshop will take place at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Tokyo March 3–5, 2009.
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