Woman’s plight puts Japanese-language school cancellation fees in spotlight

A Vietnamese woman who lives in Miyagi Prefecture sent a message to the “letters from readers” section of the Kahoku Shimpo expressing a grievance. The letter explained that when she informed the Japanese-language school where she had been studying that she had to cancel her enrollment because of financial hardship stemming from the pandemic, she was about to pay a cancellation fee of ¥3 million, after being pressured by the school to do so.

The school said that it asks for such a fee to discourage students from quitting the school and switching to a work visa, but experts say the approach takes advantage of students’ weak position and is a violation of their human rights.

In November 2020, the woman, who is in her 30s, obtained a student visa, came to Japan and entered the Japanese-language school in Sendai’s Aoba Ward.

She planned to study Japanese for two years with a goal of becoming a nursing care worker in Japan.

But soon her plans began to unravel, as a restaurant she had been working at part-time was forced to shorten business hours due to the spread of COVID-19 and her income turned out to be much lower than expected.

Her savings of roughly ¥400,000 dried up in about six months, but the school asked her to pay tuition fees of ¥500,000 for the second school year.

Because she couldn’t make the payment, she told the school in June that she would quit, and the school responded by threatening that she would have to pay a cancellation fee if she was going to switch to a work visa.

According to a recording of a conversation between the woman and a school employee obtained by Kahoku Shimpo, the woman said she was in a tough financial situation and had no savings.

Then the staffer said: “In that case you will have to return to your country. We will ask you to pay ¥3 million if you switch to a work visa or another visa. If you are thinking it’s OK for you to change to a work visa, you are wrong.”

When the woman entered the school, she signed a written oath that states the signer will not switch from a student visa to a work or other visa arbitrarily and will comply with the rule of paying a cancellation fee of ¥3 million if the pledge is violated.

‘Human rights violation’

When asked by Kahoku Shimpo why there is such a rule, the school’s principal said: “It is intended to stop people from obtaining a student visa with the purpose of working (in Japan) and quitting the school immediately to get a job. If students switch their visa to a work visa or another visa, we won’t be able to maintain our business.”

But the principal said the school has abolished the rule, since there were no cases in which the school actually demanded that a student pay the cancellation fee.

The woman was expelled from the school and is currently working in Miyagi Prefecture.

Employees of other Japanese-language schools questioned the practice of asking for a cancellation fee.

“The cancellation fee payment rule is too excessive,” said Takahiko Yamada, head of Midream School of Japanese Language in Tokyo. “Students may feel pressure to push themselves hard by working long hours or going into debt so they can finance their tuition.”

Shoichi Ibusuki, a lawyer well-versed in issues related to foreign nationals in Japan, said, “It is a violation of human rights to restrict students with cancellation fee requirements.”

“Schools must be in a difficult situation, as entries of foreign students are limited amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but they should offer support to students, such as postponing the deadline for paying tuition, so that they can continue studying,” Ibusuki said.

Supporting students

The number of foreign students in Japan rose sharply after the government announced a plan in 2008 to increase the number to 300,000 by 2020.

Education ministry data shows that the figure rose from 160,000 in 2011 to 310,000 in 2019, achieving the government target a year early.

In particular, students from Vietnam — a lower-income country — increased significantly, rising from around 4,000 in 2011 to some 62,000 in 2020.

“We can’t deny that the government’s plan to increase foreign students was used as a way to secure cheap labor,” said Reiko Nebashi, a professor of communication studies at Meiji University’s Department of Information and Communication.

Nebashi describes the system of accepting foreign students as “an immigration side door,” in comparison to the front door for those coming with a work visa.

Foreign students who work for low wages often face financial difficulties. They come to Japan heavily in debt and pay admission fees and tuition to Japanese-language schools.

They are constantly struggling with these difficulties and the risk of being deported if their student visa is not renewed.

There are cases of foreign students being abused by unsupervised brokers or at workplaces.

“It would be too harsh to say foreign students should take on the responsibility themselves,” Nebashi said. “It is necessary for the Japanese side to change its perception of foreign people as cheap labor and call students’ attention to possible risks.”

This section features topics and issues from the Tohoku region covered by the Kahoku Shimpo, the largest newspaper in Tohoku. The original article was published Feb. 27.