JAPAN'S language-related business sales have been on the decline, falling for the fourth straight year in fiscal 2008, according to a market research firm, The Japan Times recently reported.
English-language schools, the largest segment of the language market, admit they are hurting from a decline in adult classes and blame the sluggish economy as well as the influence by the Nova Corporation's bankruptcy. But they see some hope in the market segment for children, for whom English will be a mandatory subject in two years.
According to the Tokyo-based Yano Research Institute, language-related sales came to 767.2 billion yen ($8,490 million) in fiscal 2008, a 5.2 percent drop from the previous year. The foreign-language school market dropped 5.6 percent overall, with sales for adults decreasing 9.1 percent. The only segment that showed an increase in the adult language school market was one-on-one lesson, which rose 1.6 percent from the previous year. The market for those studying a language as a hobby or for educational purposes declined 17.3 percent, while sales for group lessons went down by 10.9 percent from a year earlier.
Susumu Ikegami, a spokesman for Geos Corporation, which runs English-language schools in Japan and other countries, said they have been facing a serious decline. "As the number of students decreased, the number of classrooms also declined," said Ikegami, who refused to disclose the figure for the classrooms. Ikegami said that the bankruptcy of Nova Corporation in October 2007 had some impact on the market, which resulted in distrust of English-language schools by the public. This view is mirrored by the Yano report, which said the industry was hit hard by the fall of the largest language school in Japan. Another possible factor, Ikegami suggested, was the global economic recession. "Normally we aren't really influenced by the economy, and this time we may be just trying to put the blame on the recession," Ikegami said.
Other fields in the language-business market that are suffering are distance education, where sales have dropped 1.7 percent, and the translation market, which has seen a 4.2 percent fall in sales. Sales for study abroad services dropped by 13.9 percent.
Yet amid the downward trend, there are some areas with growing demand, such as early English education for children. The Yano report showed that sales in the preschool market increased 8.4 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year.
However, Ikegami said the overall outlook for the language-school market in Japan didn't appear bright. "Rather than getting more students, we are working to run the business more economically," he said.
