Dean of the Graduate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics, Waseda University
FUKUSHIMA, Seiji

The Graduate School of Japanese Applied Linguistics at Waseda University, commonly known as Nikken, was established in April 2001 as Japan’s only independent graduate school specializing in Japanese language education. In 2026, Nikken marked its 25th anniversary. As of September 21, 2026, the School had awarded 1,095 master’s degrees and 97 doctoral degrees. Many of our graduates have gone on to work in a wide range of fields in Japan and around the world, including education and research, private industry, public administration, and international cooperation.

The social environment surrounding Japanese language education has changed greatly over the past 25 years. The number of foreign residents in Japan has continued to grow, exceeding four million by the end of 2025. At the same time, systems for accepting foreign residents have developed, while the legal and institutional framework supporting Japanese language education has also continued to take shape, including the Japanese Language Education Promotion Act of 2019 and the Registered Japanese Language Teacher system introduced in 2024. As people stay in Japan for longer periods and new generations grow up here, however, the issues that Japanese language education must address are also becoming more diverse. These include not only Japanese language education in schools and workplaces, but also healthcare and welfare for an aging foreign population, issues surrounding the role of language in connecting families and generations, and communication that helps us protect people’s lives and well-being as members of the same local communities amid increasingly frequent extreme weather and natural disasters.

At the same time, the rapid development of generative AI is changing not only Japanese language education, but also the very nature of knowledge itself. As AI becomes part of the process of gathering and organizing information, developing ideas, and writing, we are increasingly able to use it as an extension of our own knowledge and thinking. AI can speak about the world, but it cannot experience the world on our behalf. We encounter others, sometimes fail to understand one another or come into conflict, and build new knowledge and values through these experiences. In forming knowledge grounded in lived experience, language and communication may therefore become even more important than before.

Japanese language education is not simply a field that studies how Japanese should be taught. It also asks what kind of society we can create as people learn and use language, encounter others, and deepen mutual understanding and respect. As Nikken marks its 25th anniversary, we will continue to bring research and practice together, educate people who can apply the knowledge and insights of Japanese language education to shaping society, and open up new possibilities for the field.

September 2026