Number of students studying Japanese language abroad reaches nearly 4 million, China, Indonesia and South Korea top the list of countries

Picture: Japanese language dictionary

"There were a record 3.98 million people studying Japanese abroad in 2012... the number of students rose 9.1 percent from its previous survey in 2009....By country, China topped the list ...around 1.04 million learners, up 26.5 percent from the last survey, followed by 872,000 in Indonesia and 840,000 in South Korea, which topped the previous survey."

Source: 

4 million studying Japanese abroad

Japan Times

July 8th 2013

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/07/08/national/4-million-studying-japanese-abroad/#.Udt-4_kwdFs