In recent years, there has been considerable discussion about the demographics of Japanese society and how they are impacting institutions of higher education. The number of 18 year olds has fallen 25% in the past 10 years, while there has been no significant rise in those wanting to enter higher education (The Japan Times, 2001a). The actual figures reveal a bleak picture, with the number of students entering university last year only reaching 1.33 million, compared to 1.8 million in 1992 (The Japan Times, 2001b). The figures for junior colleges are even darker, with only 131,000 entrants, down from 240,000 eight years earlier. These statistics suggest that new job openings for university teachers will decrease in the coming years. The declining number of students puts foreign language teachers especially at risk because their tenure at secondary and post-secondary institutions is generally less secure than is their local counterparts, e.g., the policy of offering limited term contracts for foreign lecturers at national universities has long been maligned. Long gone are the days of the bubble era when native English speakers, without pre-arranged employment, could land at Narita and have a full-time teaching position within a few days.