家族留学奮闘記

For those who have never been abroad, it would be difficult to imagine what it means to live abroad. Some point out that Japan is a safe country with a low crime rate and its public transportation is among the best in the world. One undeniable fact is that it possesses a beautiful food culture, which is now known around the world and continues to attract many tourists. Once you step out of the city, you'll find beautiful forests, rivers, and oceans that remain untouched. Perhaps there is no reason to leave Japan, after all. As long as we stay here, we can communitecate in Japanese and there is no strong need for studying foreign languages.

I admit that Japan is a beautiful nation, which I find to be quite true after settling in the U.S.. However, that does not mean that we do not need to go abroad. I would like to share with our readers my opinion on why people in Japan, especially young people, should study abroad.

First and foremost, you cannot evaluate your nation from various different points of view if you only live in one place. You can only make comparisons after becoming familiar with the social systems of other nations. In modern society, we can gain information from books and the internet. However, nothing is more powerful than the knowledge that you acquire from direct experience. I can tell that Japan has a great public transportation system because I know from my experience that the one in the U.S. is not so efficient.

Next, for many of us, including me, Japan is a place where we feel comfortable and safe. Humans instinctively seek protection and safety. We dislike uncertainty and unpredictability, which are basically causes of threat and anxiety. However, we will fail to adapt when a sudden change occurs suddenly. We already know that our world is changing rapidly at a speed that no one can measure. Humans were too slow to respond to COVID-19 because we were unprepared. We never thought that generative AI, such as Chat GPT, can create human-like sentences in the blink of an eye. I don't intend to scare our readers. However it is important to know that staying in a comfort zone for too long doesn't guarantee a stable future especially in times of uncertainty.

Living in a foreign country alone, away from your close family, is a true challenge for many of us. However, at the same time, it is a great learning opportunity. You will be tested on how resilient and flexible you are when faced with crises in an unfamiliar land. We should acknowledge that choosing an easier path will ultimately spoil us and not prepare us for the future.

At my college, we have a dominant proportion of international students from China, followed by India and some countries in the Middle East. I don't mean at all that this trend is bad per se, but I am the only Japanese student in my program, and there are only a handful of Japanese scholars in other programs on campus. This is probably due to the spread of the COVID virus in 2020 and 2021, and the recent weakening yen against the US dollar. Sadly enough, I must tell you that there has been a sharp decline in Japanese students in the U.S., and Japan is losing its presence, at least within the community here. You may be able to witness what you didn't expect you would see. This kind of surprising moment is another fascinating aspect of going abroad.