TOKYO - JAPAN plans a more than 10-fold increase in the number of Japanese-language schools it runs abroad, hoping to tap into a growing interest in its pop culture, an official said.

The move is part of Japan's efforts to promote its 'soft power' as the nation seeks a greater global role and faces intensifying competition from emerging economies in its core export industries.

A panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said that the Japanese government directly operated only 10 language schools overseas, much lower than the number run by several other major countries.

'Ten government-backed schools is too small in number compared with the 950 French schools, 126 British-backed schools and 188 Chinese schools abroad,' he said.

He said Japan would set up the new schools, partly through tie-ups with local universities, over the three years starting from the next fiscal year that begins in April.

Some 2.98 million people overseas were studying Japanese last year, most of them going to universities and privately managed schools, according to a survey by the quasi-governmental Japan Foundation.

Previously, most foreigners studying Japanese were motivated by an interest in doing business in the world's second largest economy.

'But recent trend is that people start learning Japanese because they are interested in Japanese pop culture such as manga and animation,' Mr Watanabe said. -- AFP