Nipponica

Even as Japan brings in growing numbers of foreign workers to relieve labor shortages, 38% of its municipalities had no Japanese language schools as of last November, according to government data released Friday.

The dip to 722 out of 1,892 municipalities marked only a 0.7-percentage-point improvement from a year earlier, according to the survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The tally does not account for programs aimed at exchange students.

The number of foreign nationals living in such areas jumped 21% on the year to 170,455. Okinawa prefecture had the highest share of municipalities without schools at 81%, followed by 74% in Tottori prefecture and 71% in Hokkaido. Hyogo prefecture, which includes the city of Kobe, had no such vacuums.

Hokkaido had the most foreign residents in towns without Japanese schools, with a roughly 60% surge to 21,536. "The further into the countryside you go, the worse the labor shortages are," a prefectural official said. "There's no one who can teach Japanese."

Demand that immigrants integrate but give them no tools to do so. Sounds about right.