Poor Reception 接待不周的地主国

　　Foreign students in Japan have trouble being accepted

　　外籍学生在日本不容易被接受

　　The opportunity to study abroad should be one of the high points of a student’s career and, for most students, going abroad is a life-changing experience. There are benefits for the host country as well. Not only do foreign students spend money on tuition, housing, food and clothing, but they also often take home positive impressions of their stay and the people they met.

　　But Japan, which hosts over 100,000 foreign students a year, is having trouble making the most of its foreign students. “I’ve been here for three years,” says a 26-year-old Chinese student in Osaka. “I don’t have any Japanese friends, I’ve never been invited to a Japanese person’s home, and I’ve never felt very welcome here.”

　　That’s hardly the kind of impression that the Japanese government wants foreign students taking home to their families and classmates, but it seems to be a widespread sentiment. One newspaper complained that, “if foreign students tell everyone how they hate this country when they go home, we should ask to what purpose we are hosting them to begin with.”

　　Many of the students arrive with hopes to learn Japanese and stay on for a few years working for a Japanese company. However, that doesn’t always work out. Many foreign students graduate from a Japanese university only to discover that “Japanese companies don’t hire foreigners because they think they cannot trust non-Japanese people,” says one disillusioned job-seeker from the Philippines.

　　This is a problem for universities. With the Japanese birth rate one of the lowest in the world, Japanese schools are turning to foreign students to fill their classrooms.

　　The government has actively tried to boost the number of foreign students, up from fewer than 10,000 only 20 years ago. But, as one student in Tokyo says, “Japan’s policy is one of persuading people to come and then dissuading them from staying. As public relations policy, it’s about as self-defeating as it gets.”

　　到国外念书应该是求学生涯中的精彩阶段，对很多学生来说，出国是一个改变一生的经验。这对接待的国家也有益处，外籍学生不只花钱付学费、住宿、伙食和衣物，他们通常也把在当地生活和他们遇见的人的好印象带回家。

　　但是每年接待10万名外籍学生的日本，却没有好好利用这些外籍学生。“我已经在这里待了三年。”一位住在大阪的26岁中国学生说，“我没有任何日本朋友，我从未受邀到日本人的家里去，而且我觉得自己在这里不太受欢迎。”

　　这几乎不是日本政府希望外国学生带回去和家人、同学分享的印象，但这似乎是一种广泛的感受。有份报纸这样抱怨：“如果外籍学生回去以后告诉大家他们有多讨厌这个国家，我们应该开始问一问我们接待他们的目的何在。”

　　许多学生来的时候希望能学到日文，并可以在日本公司做工作几年。然而，不是每一次都能得到这样的结果。许多外籍学生从日本大学毕业后发现“日本公司不愿聘用外国人，因为他们认为自己没办法信任非日本人。”一位来自菲律宾的幻灭的求职者这样说。

　　这对大学来说是个问题。日本是全球出生率最低的国家之一，日本的学校仰赖外籍学生来弥补不足的学生人数。

　　日本政府已经积极努力提高外籍学生的数量，20年前的学生人数比1万人还少。但正如在东京的一名学生所说：“日本的政策是说服大家过来、然后又阻止他们留下来。就公关政策而言，这是极度的自相矛盾。”