Scholarships to Encourage More Japanese to Study Overseas

The New York Times reports that "to encourage more Japanese youths to study abroad, a plan is in the works to offer scholarships to those taking short-term overseas courses, the Japanese education minister, Hakubun Shimomura, said during a visit to Washington...The grants are part of a larger policy shift, and will be given only to students enrolled at Japanese universities that decide to switch their academic calendars to starting in the autumn, which will match many other countries, instead of starting in the spring, as they traditionally do in Japan."