Japan to promote night schools to handle rise in foreigners

On the back of a rise in foreign students, the education ministry plans to expand financial assistance to local governments so they can operate junior high schools at nighttime, informed sources said.

The ministry will increase the amount of funds for night school assistance from the previous year in its budget request for fiscal 2015, which starts next April, the sources said.

Night school students used to mainly be Japanese adults who were unable to finish compulsory education due to the confusion during and just after the war. People who missed compulsory education due to reasons such as economic difficulties and bullying also go to such schools.

But as of May 2013, non-Japanese accounted for 1,442 of all 1,879 students attending nighttime junior high schools.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/07/27/national/japan-to-promote-night-schools-to-handle-rise-in-foreigners/#.U9WH8UDNvMo