ABSTRACT This article examines the historical development and contemporary status of Japanese language institutes catering for international students in Japan (nihongo gakkō; hereafter ‘JLIs’), highlighting their ambiguous positioning in the landscape of international education. It outlines the dramatic growth and shift in JLI student profiles since 2010 by reference to changes in policy and market dynamics, including the evolution of transnational recruitment channels and the emergence of JLI students as an important source of unskilled labour. Drawing on both secondary data and interviews with JLI teachers and students, the article sheds light on the struggle to reconcile competing educational and managerial priorities, as well as the difficulty of formulating effective policy responses in the absence of a comprehensive regulatory regime or a unified industry lobby. This analysis of JLIs problematises the assumptions and institutional categories employed in mainstream studies of international higher education, and encourages a reconfiguration of traditional frames for understanding Japanese language education, student mobility, and the foreign labour market, all of which are major policy issues in Japan today.

中文翻译：

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Nihongo Gakkō：日本日语学院的功能和功能障碍

摘要 本文考察了面向日本国际学生的日语学院（nihongo gakkō；以下简称“JLI”）的历史发展和当代地位，突出了它们在国际教育领域的模糊定位。它通过参考政策和市场动态的变化概述了自 2010 年以来 JLI 学生概况的急剧增长和转变，包括跨国招聘渠道的演变以及 JLI 学生作为非技术劳动力的重要来源的出现。文章利用二手数据和对 JLI 师生的采访，阐明了协调相互竞争的教育和管理优先事项的斗争，以及在缺乏全面的监管制度或统一的行业游说团体的情况下难以制定有效的政策应对措施。对 JLI 的分析对国际高等教育主流研究中采用的假设和制度类别提出了问题，并鼓励重新配置理解日语教育、学生流动和外国劳动力市场的传统框架，所有这些都是日本的主要政策问题今天。