Minister visits one of three Japanese universities with Catalan as subject

During her trip to Japan as part of a joint effort by administrations and FC Barcelona to promote Catalonia’s economy, tourism and culture, on Tuesday culture minister Mariàngela Vilallonga was in Hosei University, in Tokyo, where she met with its deputy dean, Yoshinori Kumata.

During the meeting, Vilallonga expressed her willingness to "promote and expand" Catalan studies in Japan.

In 2018, Catalonia’s Institut Ramon Llull, which promotes the country’s culture and language abroad, signed an agreement with Hosei University to establish the Catalan course and to host academic activities and research in order to promote the subject.

As with the other two, Tokyo’s Hosey University offers a subject on Catalan language and culture. Altogether 39 students enrolled in the courses during the 2018-2019 academic year. Beijing’s University of Foreign Studies is the other educational institution in Asia that offers an equivalent subject.

Catalan courses around the world

During the 2017-2018 academic year, 142 universities around the world offered similar courses – 86 of which received the support of Institut Ramon Llull to give lectures of Catalan.

There were 6,194 enrolments in such subjects in these universities, with 3,670 different people taking them.

France (1,547) was the country that topped the ranking, ahead of the UK (678) and Germany (667).