Studying Japanese is gaining popularity in places as close as South Korea and as far away as Brazil, and the reasons for studying the language in Japan vary just as widely.
Ghada Moustafa Moustafa Mousa, an Egyptian representative of the Association of Japanese Language Teachers in the Middle East, said at a recent international symposium in Tokyo that Egyptians and Turks are studying Japanese to get the "benefits of the present era."
He explained that about 100,000 Japanese tourists visit Egypt annually and that wages for guides with Japanese-language abilities are higher than for others.