Japan to conduct review of China funded Confucius Institute 'to seek more information'

Amid escalating tension between Beijing and Tokyo, the Japanese authorities have now announced that they will conduct a review of a China-funded educational organisation known as Confucius Institute. According to Asia Nikkei, the Japanese education ministry will ask universities that host the institute to provide information on funding, the number of participating students, and whether it intervenes in university research. The list of questions will be formalised by the end of the year as the Japanese officials are concerned that a group is a propaganda tool of China. 

It is worth mentioning that China began establishing the institute in 2004 across the globe to expand its soft power reach by spreading its culture and language. As per reports, Japan is worried that technologies can be leaked to the Chinese side through personal exchanges. Education Minister Koichi Hagiuda, therefore, urged the information disclosure to raise transparency regarding organisational management and research projects.

Hagiuda even added, “There are growing efforts to seek more information or abolish the institutes in countries that share common values, such as the US and Europe”. 

Confucius Institute is ‘recognised as security threat’

The US and Europe are already making attempts to regulate China’s institutes' activities in their countries. The organisation has an estimated 500 chapters in about 160 countries and regions. Japan alone has 14 private universities, including Waseda University and Ritsumeikan University, that have  Confucius Institute on campus.

Japan’s former minister of state for measures for declining birthrate, Haruko Arimura even pointed out at an upper house committee meeting in May that the Confucius Institute is "recognised as a security threat by other countries”. He then proposed that related ministries and agencies cooperate to monitor the organisation. Yoshinori Hakui, head of the ministry's higher education bureau, on the other hand, told parliament that "there is no example of [other countries] establishing a cultural base like the Confucius Institute" except China.

(With inputs from ANI)