On Motivations for Southeast Asian Doctoral Students' Studying at Japanese Private Universities

It was investigated why Southeast Asian recipients of engineering or related fields studied at Japanese private universities. Scholarships were the most popular reason. The reasons that they liked Japan and that the research or education level at Japanese universities was high were less popular. About a half of questionnaire respondents had been to Japan before they studied at Japanese language institutes or at Japanese universities. More than ninety percent of respondents were interested in Japanese culture before they studied at Japanese language institutes or at Japanese universities. These implied that they had advance knowledge on Japan before they studied in Japan. Correlation analysis implied that Japanese anime or cartoons would be one of indirect causes of Southeast Asian doctoral students’ studying at Japanese private universities. Analysis of international students’ voices on Japanese private universities’ official web pages showed that one reason why they were motivated to study at Japanese private universities was interest in the Japanese language and Japanese culture. This is consistent with the questionnaire survey.