It's 1:50 p.m., just five minutes before the fourth period is set to start at Tanashi Daini Junior High in western Tokyo. From one of its classrooms reverberates the sound of frustrated teachers, who surround and stare anxiously at a large screen set up to replace a green chalkboard that, under normal circumstances, would be commanding the attention of students in the room. At the center of the scene is Megumi Kurihara, a veteran Japanese-language teacher who is supposed to begin her class in just a few minutes. But this isn't like any class she has ever taught in her decadeslong career. It's going to be fully remote, with only that big screen and a tablet connecting her to about 70 students logging in from home.

The government plans to supply more personal computers to Japanese schools overseas so students can continue to study remotely at home while avoiding the coronavirus. The education ministry intends to ensure each pupil at Japanese elementary and high schools abroad has access to a computer, widening the scope of the existing domestic initiative. It is estimated that about 12,000 pupils and teachers at such schools need new PCs or tablet devices, and the goverment plans to start distributing them as early as this fall, in addition to shouldering half the costs. For schools that want to add more than 50 computers, the government will dispatch information and communication technology experts for the task and pay half the costs. For the project, the ministry has set aside ¥500 million ($4.6 million) in the draft second supplementary budget for fiscal 2020.

The Justice Ministry will impose new regulations on Japanese-language schools in October to ensure students who enter Japan to learn the language do not spend the majority of their stay working instead of studying. The change was implemented after one applicant raised the ministry's eyebrows by asking about setting up a school that would be in session for just half a year, presumably so students could use the longer holiday period to work. Under current student visa conditions, students can work up to 40 hours a week when their schools are on holiday and 28 hours when they are in session. Although there were previously no rules on how long a school should be in session, the new rule will require schools to be in session for at least 35 weeks a year. "The main duty of a student is to study," said Justice Ministry official Tetsuya Soga, who explained that the new rule is intended as a way to clarify that students should be putting their effort into studying rather than working.

A shake-up of Japanese-language schools is in the cards as the government tries to lure more foreign students but faces up to the fact that many facilities are poorly run or even corrupt. According to education ministry officials, most of the problems stem from the fact that oversight of language schools has been handed over to the Justice Ministry, whose primary concern is not learning but immigration administration. Although the education ministry still has some say, oversight of school quality ends up falling between the cracks. "Increasing the quality of Japanese-language schools is practically a national policy but bureaucracy is getting in the way," an education ministry official said. "It's going to be difficult to improve the situation unless some serious wrongdoing surfaces."