Chapter 2. Towards the Enrichment and Spread of Culture
�6 The Global Spread of Japanese Language Education
2. For Learners of Japanese throughout the World
(7) Cooperation for Japanese language education abroad
The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Home Affairs and local governments, conducts a "Program for Regional and Educational Exchanges for Mutual Understanding"(abbreviated as the REX Program). This program's goals are to cope with the growing demand for Japanese language education abroad and especially the increasing number of people learning Japanese in school education, to accelerate internationalization of school education in Japan and to promote international exchange at the community level. The program dispatches local public lower and upper secondary school teachers to secondary schools in other countries for two years to teach the Japanese language and to introduce Japanese culture in the areas to which they are sent. The number of teachers dispatched under this program is shown in Table I 2 10.
Table l-2-10 The Number of Teachers Dispatched under the REX Program
Besides administering programs which send Japanese language education experts abroad, the Japan Foundation also carries out a "Teaching Assistant Program" (the TAP Program) to dispatch Japanese language teachers to upper secondary schools in Australia and New Zealand which conduct Japanese language education for a two year period. 11 teachers were sent under this program in 1992. Another program is the "Japanese Language Exchange Program" (The JALBX Program) conducted by the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation. Under this program, persons who have studied in or graduated from university Japanese language departments or post-graduate courses are dispatched to conduct Japanese language education at high schools in the United States. 36 persons participated in this program in 1992.
