Considering Chinese foreign study in Japan : a report on a conference commemorating 110 years of Chinese students studying in Japan

The Western powers advanced into Asia in the nineteenth century. Japan abandoned its policy of forced isolation and quickly looked towards the West. Unlike China, whose status as Asia\u27s suzerainty was endangered, Japan, through its policies of Westernization, succeeded in reversing its position vis-à-vis China, and joined the ranks of the world powers. The success of the Meiji Restoration was a shocking revelation for China. China finally realized that it needed to break out of its pre-modern state. China\u27s defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war (1894–95) at the hands of Japan, a country that it had long looked down on as insignificant, was especially demoralizing. China was faced with the reality that it lagged behind the rest of the world. There was an urgent need to learn from foreign countries. It was in this context that the Chinese Qing government first dispatched a total of 13 students to Japan on June 15, 1896.In 1905 China abolished its only system of special education for gifted members of its society, the system of Imperial examinations that had existed for 1,300 years. Since they lacked a system to replace this, the Chinese experts looked to Japan for the acquisition of new knowledge. In this way, Japanese education played an important role in this period of exigency. The year 1905 saw approximately ten thousand Chinese students studying in Japan.Established in May 1904, Hosei University set up an intensive training course (Sokuseika) and accepted a large number of foreign students from China. In fields where training was thought to be especially urgent, namely law, administration, and politics, a total of 2,117 students were accepted. Graduates who went on to play important roles in China\u27s development include WANG Jingwei (1883–1944), Hu Hanmin (1879–1936), SONG Jiaoren (1882–1913), CHEN Tianhua (1875–1905) and Cao Rushuang.The August 7 1905 edition of the Asahi Shimbun reports that at that time a total of 35 schools, from elementary schools to universities, had enrollments of Chinese students. Hosei University had 295 enrolled at that date, third in the total number of students enrolled per institution.The first characteristic of Hosei University\u27s intensive training course is that there was no difficult entrance exam. All that was necessary to enroll was a letter of introduction from the Chinese Minister to Japan. Its second characteristic was that language was not a problem. Chinese interpreters were present for all classes, and teaching materials were translated into Chinese. Its third characteristic was that it was coordinated with Chinese educational reforms. Its fourth characteristic was the various types of supported offered for the foreign students\u27 activities.Statistics compiled by YAMAMURO Shin\u27ichi, a professor at the University of Kyoto, indicate that a total of 97 individuals who had studied in Japan held positions in national and local assemblies in 1913, and 48 of these were graduates of Hosei University.If the peak of Chinese students in Japan following the first Sino-Japanese war is the first, then the second is the remarkable increase in numbers since the beginning of the 1980s. A survey of foreign students made by the Japan Student Services Organization indicates that in May 2005 80,592 Chinese students were studying in Japan, surpassing the 77,713 of 2004. At present, there are more than 500,000 people of Chinese descent resident in Japan, including many former students and their descendents.Students like these have made significant contributions to China-Japan relations. Conflicts sometimes arise, however, when nationalistic sentiments mingle with personal desires. This is a problem that still needs to be overcome, and to do so will require continued efforts and a substantial amount of time