WATCH this. Pune has the highest number of Japanese speakers and with 70 teachers of the language, it is way ahead of several metros like Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata.
Fuelling this unique status is Pune�s job market where knowing a foreign language helps, but if you know Japanese you have the edge. The city�s growing status as an IT destination where the industry needs people with knowledge of Japanese has added to the demand.
Consider this. Among the 5,294 people who took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), an international exam held worldwide last December, 2,275 applicants were from Pune. Cities like Chennai had 1,785 applicants, Delhi came third with 1,026 while Kolkata put up just 208 candidates.
The Japan Foundation India (JFI), a part of the Education and Foreign Affairs Ministry of Japan, that conducts the exam has compiled the statistics. �The Japanese Language Teachers� Association (JALTAP) conducts our tests in Pune. The setting of the questions and evaluation are done in Japan. The Pune-Mumbai region has had the highest number of people appearing for the test in India,� says JFI assistant programme officer Randeepa Kaur.
Figure like these make people like JALTAP president Suhas Mate happy. After all, he has been watching the language grow in the city since the 1970s. �Nichiko Igarashi was one of the first Japanese language teachers in the city, followed by others like Nichiko Tendulkar and Hari Damle. They helped set up the department of Japanese language at the University of Pune in 1978,� says Mate.
So when the city began to ride the IT wave, there were many who knew the language here. Mate points to another interesting fact where people from Marathi background learn Japanese. �The structure of Marathi and Japanese is similar and has lead to a comfort level while learning the language,�� he says.
�The city certainly is a hub for Japanese. The University of Pune, with 17 teachers, is one of the strongest Japanese language departments in the country. We have about 700 students for various certificate and diploma courses per year,��says Mugdha Yardi, in-charge of the Japanese language section.
Moreover, there are about 20 private institutions that teach Japanese to students and corporates. Yardi says there is a new corporate trend, � IT companies would hire professionals with technical knowledge and then teach them Japanese to deal with the business. Today the trend is completely reversed.� Which is what made the UoP start a course in Business Japanese and a Diploma in Japanese Translation and Civilization.
There are other opportunities too. Aparna Chandrachood, who works as a Japanese translator, interpreter and teaches at the Indo-Japanese Association, Pune, feels the demand for people knowing Japanese will grow. �After learning the language for three years, I now handle projects related to translation of chemical patents, banking systems and software programming,� she says.