It is often said that Japanese do not want to take risks. If an entrepreneur fails in Japan, they cannot try business again. As students can expect good education even in Japan, only a few students apply to graduate schools in USA. If you see name lists of several USA institutions of earth sciences, you rarely find Japanese "graduate students" though a lot of Chinese and Korean students are studying. One thing you should remember about earth sciences is that Japan takes a main role in earth sciences. Earthquake Research Institute of Tokyo University is one of the representative institution of earth sciences in the world. However, the number of Japanese graduate students in USA is less than expectation from the total number of Japanese students in earth sciences.
The rate of people who come to USA from Japan have been decreasing recently. This is because USA is not considered as a only country to study as scientists. No doubt USA still occupies the most important role as the leading country of science and technology. Researchers, facility, and resources, however, do not concentrate just in USA these days.
In addition, most of the Japanese students go to the same graduate school as their undergraduate and Japanese government often supports just good PhD students financially. These background causes decreasing number of the students who would go to USA.
If you studied in USA after you finish your master degree or undergraduate, it could be risky for your recruiting activity. In order to obtain a good position in good companies, you have to start recruiting activity one year before graduation. As the beginning of fiscal year in Japan is different from USA, degrees in USA is not always advantage for your job.
On the other hand, these days, Japanese graduate school students in USA are trying to support . It seems that the importance of experience in different culture is highly appreciated in Japan. In near future, large amount of people may choose their PhD in USA.
I feel that language barrier is still a big issue for Japanese students. If you spend a lot of time for learning English, it is sometimes very difficult to speak or listen as well as native speakers. Some Japanese still believe that speaking fluently can be achieved if they live in USA. However, most of students think that is illusion and intensive practice is required for improvement of English.
In my opinion, the advantage of studying abroad as a graduate student is not only for study with people from other countries but also for living in a different culture by your choice. Studying as achievement really enhance student's motivation. That is also true to me. Sometimes I meet a lot of serious difficulty especially in language in different context of culture. On the other hand, my research in USA is worthy of these difficulties.
I do not know whether I can survive here until next year, but every experience supports my attitude toward future.
