University of Tsukuba apologizes over comments against foreign students
The University of Tsukuba has apologized after two of its associate professors posted inflammatory comments on social media about foreign nationals, with one of them having described foreign students as “incompetent” and “troublemakers.”
In a statement published on its website on Friday, the university said the post contained “discriminatory language against foreign students” and “lacked respect for other countries.”
The university declined to name the faculty members who made the posts, citing its internal policy.
In a post on social media platform X on Feb. 8, an associate professor said “foreign students who come to Japanese universities tend to be incompetent, and many are troublemakers.” The associate professor went on to say they personally ignore emails from foreign applicants with unknown backgrounds.
The post was made in response to another user’s post, which asserted that outstanding international students tend to go to the U.S. rather than Japan to study, and that many foreign students in Japan lack research ability worth subsidizing with taxpayer money.
Responding to replies to their post, the associate professor said some foreign students “have no idea what kind of work we do here” and that engaging with them is “just a waste of time,” adding that they sometimes wonder whether such people “should even be allowed into our universities.”
Another associate professor, in a separate post on Feb. 10, made derogatory remarks about Thailand’s political system.
The University of Tsukuba, meanwhile, said in a statement on Friday that it is investigating whether the comments breached work regulations or its social media guidelines.
“We offer our deepest apologies to anyone who was offended by the content of the post,” the statement said.
The university said it requests faculty to be mindful of their responsibilities as members of a national university and that it will issue warnings to prevent a recurrence.
As of Oct. 1, there were 2,466 foreign students from 115 countries studying at the University of Tsukuba.
At the time of writing, the posts remained online.
