As the Japan Foundation revealed this week, the number of people studying the Japanese language abroad in 2012 totaled 3 million 980 thousand.

The preliminary report finds that the number of students has increased 9.1% compared to a report made in 2009.

Although Japan’s economy has deteriorated over the past two years, a number of people continue to study the Japanese language as it is necessary for their careers, explained Toshiki Ando, ​​one of the foundation’s directors.

“In addition, there are many people who learn the language for their interest in Japanese culture, including manga and animation,” he added.

The top of the list is made up of Chinese with 1,040,000 students, followed by Indonesia with 872,000 and 840,000 Koreans.