Fewer high school students went abroad on school-sponsored trips in fiscal 2002, declining for the first time, according to a biennial survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
The ministry said Wednesday that 182,986 students traveled abroad, down from a record 196,971 in the 2000 academic year.
It attributed the decline to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S. and an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome early last year.
Visitors to China numbered 36,607 in the 2002 academic year, down 5,088, and those to the United States totaled 20,640, down 6,098.
The most popular destination for high school-sponsored trips was China, followed by South Korea, Australia, Singapore and the United States.
The survey on international exchanges among high school students found that 1,478 foreign high school students stayed at Japanese schools for at least three months in the 2002 academic year, up by 44.
A total of 1,194 high schools had foreign language courses other than English, up 148.