Prevent Sensitive Information Leakage, Japanese Universities Strictly Check Background For Foreign Students

Illustration of a university in Japan. (Wikimedia Commons/JKT-c)

JAKARTA - Major Japanese universities, including those with close ties to China, are moving to tighten background checks on foreign students seeking to study civil-military technology, according to a survey.

Quoting Kyodo News September 24, this step is part of their efforts to keep sensitive information from being transferred out of Japan. This follows the announcement by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's government in June to tighten controls on exports of technology that could be used for military purposes.

Under this provision, foreign students who are under the strong influence of their government must obtain the approval of the Ministry of Industry to undertake such research.

The survey gathered responses from 56 universities, including universities that have student exchange agreements with Chinese universities known as the 'Seven Sons of National Defense', which have close ties to China's defense industry.

Of the universities surveyed, 31 said they had tightened background checks on students or planned to do so.

They have started checking with schools about which foreign students have attended and the companies they work for. Some universities ask students if they want to find military-related jobs, while others ask for details about research funding students receive.

Previously, many universities only asked the last school the student attended. As of May last year, there were about 280,000 foreign students in Japan, with more than 40 percent of them coming from China.

Japan currently does not have strict rules on research by foreign students and researchers on so-called dual-use technologies with military applications such as artificial intelligence.

"As long as Japanese universities rely on student resumes for background checks, the government needs to conduct stricter screening of foreign students," said Mikihito Kano, a Mie University professor who specializes in intellectual property management.