When we think about Japanese language education for other Asians in Japan today, it is absolutely necessary for us to consider some historical circumstances. One of these considerations would be that since the birth of modern Japan (i.e. the beginning of the Meiji era), Japanese language education for other Asians has been largely characterized by her ego-centric strategy aimed toward her national interest. It was more so when the education was conducted, as it often was, for Asians not in Japan but in the areas occupied or controlled by Japan. The most extreme case of this kind was in colonized Korea and Manchoukuo, which was in fact deprivation of the mother tongue and the forcing of Japanese as a foreign language. After the end of World War II, however, the situation changed and defeated Japan had to cease her forcing of Japanese on Asians. Moreover, the phenomenon appeared that some elite Asians studying in Japan came to enjoy a sort of material gain, different in quality from that of learning Japanese itself. Taking advantage of this Asian desire to learn Japanese, Japan began, as she became an economic power, to seem to regard Japanese language education for other Asians as part of her new subterranean "colonial policy" toward other Asian countries. It became much more so after the middle of the 1980's, when Chinese hoping to study in Japan began increasing explosively and dishonest Japanese businessmen began swindling them. To make matters worse, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, as if influenced by subterranean colonialism, adopted a special measure concerning school credit for Japanese and Japanese studies for foreign university students in Japan. The writer of this article emphasizes that Japanese language education for other Asians, which deprives them of their national identity, should be improved and changed into one that can contribute toward better cross-cultural communication between Japan and other Asian countries. The writer also states that the conventional problems of Japanese should be solved and the language be improved so as to be more correctly understood and used by foreigners both inside and outside of Japan.

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