How Far Does a Yen Go?

When Yui studied at Princeton in 2023 and 2024, her year abroad also involved an unfamiliar discipline: constantly calculating currency conversions. In an account for the Japanese Tobitate scholarship programme, she writes that because of the weak yen, even an inexpensive meal out cost around 2,000 yen. So she cooked for herself as much as possible. Even so, she describes her time abroad as an experience of lasting value.

One student does not prove a social trend. But her story reveals a contradiction that is now also visible in broader data: young Japanese people have not become less curious about the world. Yet for people whose savings and family incomes are denominated in yen, spending an extended period in some parts of that world has become considerably more expensive.

The interesting question, then, is not: Are Japan’s young people turning away from going abroad?

But rather: How far does their yen still go?

In 2024, Japanese universities recorded 91,054 students going abroad. That was 2.1 per cent more than the previous year. What is striking, however, is what lies beneath that overall figure. Stays of less than one month increased by 5.7 per cent, while every category of longer stays declined. At the same time, the number of students going to North America fell significantly, while Asia gained ground.

That alone does not prove a price effect. The lingering effects of the pandemic, university programmes, language skills and personal preferences also play a role.

Another figure also challenges the simple narrative of a generation losing interest in the wider world. For the 2026 round of the Tobitate scholarship programme, 1,481 students applied, compared with 1,204 the previous year. There have never been more applicants since the programme’s second phase began.

A new study commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Education shows just how different the paths abroad can be. It surveyed 875 people who had studied abroad for at least six months, either currently or at some point during roughly the previous ten years.

On average, one month of study abroad in Asia cost around 190,000 yen. In Europe, the figure was 280,000 yen, in North America 390,000 yen and in Oceania 410,000 yen. Housing and living expenses in particular account for a large share of these differences.

Even more striking is the connection with family income.

Among respondents from households with annual incomes below three million yen, 16.3 per cent of stays were in North America and 28.6 per cent in Asia. Among respondents from households earning at least twelve million yen a year, North America accounted for 33.3 per cent, while Asia accounted for just 9.3 per cent. The ministry itself summarises the pattern this way: as household income rises, the share of students going to North America increases, while Asia is more strongly represented among lower income households.

International experience has a social geography.

This social selectivity predates the yen’s most recent weakness.

A study of 18,510 students at 69 Japanese universities, based on data from 2017, had already shown that socioeconomic background influences the likelihood of studying abroad. Yet the same research found an important counter effect. At universities participating in major government internationalisation programmes, the relationship between social background and study abroad became weaker.

What matters, then, is not only how much money a family has. Where someone studies can be just as important.

A university with many partner institutions, good advice and financial support can extend the reach of a limited family budget.

Under its 2026 exchange programme, JASSO pays between 80,000 and 120,000 yen per month, depending on the destination region. Students who meet certain financial criteria can also receive 160,000 yen in travel support. But the funding is tied to university programmes. A student’s own university applies for the programme and selects the participants.

The new MEXT study therefore does not draw a conclusion about exchange rates alone. It calls for greater support for lower income groups, points to differences between universities and explicitly expresses the wish for scholarships to be adjusted more closely to exchange rate movements and rising prices around the world.

The yen, then, is not the whole story.

It is acting on a system in which family and institution were already helping to determine how easily someone could go abroad.

There is another uncomfortable question: how much does international experience pay off later in a career?

The fact that a semester abroad can be personally valuable is not the same as a guaranteed financial return. One study of Japanese labour market data found a measurable income advantage mainly among people who had spent at least 25 months abroad during their studies or higher education and who later used their English skills professionally. For the international experience of most Japanese students, by contrast, no general income effect could be identified.

The current MEXT study also reports the problem that longer periods abroad are not always sufficiently recognised professionally in Japan.

For a wealthy family, that uncertainty is easier to bear.

Anyone who would have to use a substantial share of their savings or take out a loan has to calculate differently. The question is not only whether they want to go abroad, but whether the financial risk can be justified.

Social inequality, then, does not begin only with who is able to travel. It also appears in who can afford to choose an experience whose economic value remains uncertain.

At the same time, more and more students are coming to Japan. While this debate is unfolding, Japan is internationalising remarkably quickly in the opposite direction.

As of 1 May 2025, 408,069 international students were living in Japan, 21.2 per cent more than a year earlier and the highest number ever recorded. The largest groups came from China, Nepal and Vietnam.

Remarkable.

Japan is becoming more international. For young people coming to Japan, new educational paths are opening up. For some young Japanese people, meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly important how much financial support stands behind them, which scholarship they receive and which region of the world they can choose.

The question of the yen therefore leads to a larger question about international experience.

The decisive social divide may not run between a cosmopolitan youth and a generation turning away from the world.

It may run through the same curious generation.

One person can finance a year in North America. Another chooses a shorter stay. Someone else opts for Asia. Another goes only because their university offers a funding programme. And some never appear in the statistics at all, because the numbers do not add up even before they apply.

The weak yen did not create these differences.

But it can give them greater weight.

It does not determine who dreams of the world. It can help determine how far that dream can reach.

Sources

1. Yui / Tobitate! Study Abroad JAPAN, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT, 2024: ゆいさんの海外留学体験記（留学先：アメリカ合衆国）
   Yui’s account of studying abroad in the United States.
   https://tobitate-mext.jasso.go.jp/zukan/detail-3183

2. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT, 2026: 「日本人学生の海外留学状況」及び「外国人留学生の在籍状況調査」について
   On the situation of Japanese students studying abroad and the survey of international students in Japan.
   https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/ryugaku/1412692_00003.htm

3. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT, 2026: 官民協働海外留学支援制度～トビタテ！留学 JAPAN 新・日本代表プログラム～【大学生等対象】2026 年度（第 18 期）派遣留学生の選考結果及び壮行会の開催について 応募者数が前年度から約 2 割増加！
   https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/tobitate/1422994_00016.htm

4. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, MEXT, 2026: 海外大学に長期留学する者の留学資金調達の現状に係る調査研究
   Study on the current financing situation of people undertaking longer periods of study at universities abroad.
   https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/itaku/mext_00001.html

5. Entrich, Steve R.; Netz, Nicolai; Matsuoka, Ryoki, 2023: The Role of Institutional Contexts for Social Inequalities in Study Abroad Intent and Participation. CSRDA Discussion Paper No. 49, Center for Social Research and Data Archives, Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo.
   https://csrda.iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp/international/dp/No.49.pdf

6. Japan Student Services Organization, JASSO, 2026: 海外留学支援制度（協定派遣）
   Student Exchange Support Program, Scholarship for Short term Study Abroad.
   https://www.jasso.go.jp/ryugaku/scholarship_a/haken/index.html

7. Kobayashi, Genki, 2019: 日本人学生の留学経験は就労後の所得を高めるか：大学教育における留学の意義再考
   The Effect of Studying Abroad in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Years on Wages. 大学教育学会誌 / Journal of Japan Association for College and University Education, 41(1), pp. 97 to 106.
   https://da.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/da/kernel/90006221/

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