Relationship between International Students’ Information-gathering
Capacity and Behavior Patterns after the Great East Japan Earthquake
Shaoyu Ye & Masao Murota
Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
shye@mr.hum.titech.ac.jp ; murota@hum.titech.ac.jp
Abstract: In order to investigate (a) international students’ information-gathering capacities and their
behavior patterns after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and (b) how their information-gathering
capacities and cultural competency, as well as their demographic factors, related to their behavior
patterns in the aftermath of the earthquake, we conducted a survey of over 500 international students
enrolled at Saitama University 3-month after the earthquake. On the basis of 397 student responses, it
was established that (i) the students primarily accessed Japan’s mass media and various websites tocollect relevant information; (ii) nearly half of the students stayed where they were while over half ofthem went to other places; (iii) their cultural competency in Japan and information-gathering capacities,
as well as their demographic factors (age, gender, economic situation, nationality, Japanese language
proficiency), all influenced their behavior patterns in the aftermath of the earthquake; and (iv) Chinese
students had more diverse purposes for studying in Japan and higher cultural competency than students
from other countries, which was found to be related to their behavior patterns. The implications andissues for future research are discussed in order to get a better understanding of how to support
international students when emergencies, such as earthquakes, occur in future.
Keywords: Great East Japan Earthquake, International Students, Information-gathering Capacity, Behavior
Patterns

Introduction
According to the statistics of the Japanese Student Services Organization (JASSO), the number ofinternational students decreased by 2.6% (3,699) after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2012). Although over
100 countries expressed support of and help for Japan to reconstruct and recover immediately after theearthquake, many countries issued evacuation orders for their own citizens and supported the temporary return of
their international students to their home countries because of the serious situation and radiation escaping fromthe Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. In this sense, it can be said that the Great East Japan Earthquake
may have greatly affected Japan’s policy of accepting international students, as the Japanese government has
stated that it wishes to accept 300,000 international students by 2020 (MEXT, 2008). Therefore, it becomes more
and more important to consider how to support international students when emergencies such as earthquakes
occur in future.
At present, there are some studies which focus on how to support international students after the Great
East Japan Earthquake. For instance, Yamaguchi (2012) mentions that it is important to give appropriate advice
and support international students properly after confirming their safety in the event of disaster. In addition,
Fujiwara and Hachiwaka (2012) clarify the effects of using mailing lists to transmit information to international
students at the time of the earthquake and of international students consulting with faculty members of theInternational Student Center at Ibaraki University via email in the earthquake’s aftermath. In this sense, it isnecessary to investigate international students’ capacities of using media to collect earthquake-related
information and clarify whether or not there is any influence of their demographic factors such as Japanese
language proficiency on it. Furthermore, there are some research results showing that Japanese local residents
preferred to use different media for collecting tsunami and other related information between thedisaster-damaged area and the Tokyo metropolitan region (MIC, 2012). Thus, issues such as (a) how
international students used media to collect relevant information after the Great East Japan Earthquake and (b)the relationship between their information-gathering capacities and demographic factors, need to be examined.
Additionally, there are some studies that focus on what kind of factors had influenced the international
students’ decision to continue to study in Japan (e.g., Koyanagi et al., 2012; Ogasa, 2012). For example, Ogasa(2012) interviewed four international students and found that although their behavior patterns were different
immediately after the earthquake, all of them decided to stay in Japan to continue their studies because (i) they
had some friends who would stay in Japan and support them, (ii) they decided to spend their valuable study
period by themselves, and (iii) they shared sympathy with the general Japanese residents who tried to support
people in the disaster-damaged areas. However, whether there is any difference between international students’behavior patterns in disaster-damaged areas and non-damaged areas remains unknown. Furthermore, it isreasonable to believe that those students, who have higher cultural competency, including higher Japanese
language proficiency and capacities of collecting earthquake-related information, are likely to make appropriate
decisions on their behavior patterns to evacuate immediately after the earthquake and on staying in Japan in theaftermath. Therefore, in order to clarify the above issues, there is a need to examine (a) the behavior patterns
they preferred, and (b) the relationship between their cultural competency and their capacities of using media andbehavior patterns after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to clarify (a) how international students in a metropolitan regionused media to collect relevant information and what kind of behavior patterns they preferred, and (b) how heir
information-gathering capacities and cultural competency, as well as their demographic factors, related to their
behavior patterns after the earthquake. Then, based on the results, we compare them with references about how
to support international students in Japan and seek to obtain implications concerning aspects in the future.

MethodTarget GroupThe present study conducted a questionnaire with 518 international students who were enrolled at Saitama
University, where people experienced the earthquake to some extent (lower/upper magnitude of 5). This survey
was conducted in June 2011, 3 months after the earthquake. A total of 444 students submitted their responses by
the deadline (recovery rate: 85.7%), and 397 questionnaires were analyzed to collect data. All of the analyzed
students experienced the disaster and came back to continue their studies in Japan. The remaining responses
were unusable because they were not in Japan when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred.
Survey Items
The survey items included the three parts as follows.
(a) Personal Information: gender, age, nationality, major, student status, period of stay in Japan, Japanese
language proficiency score resulting from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) and a self-evaluationof their Japanese language proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing compared with Japanese adultnative speakers by percentage. In addition, the survey asked about their likableness of Japanese students ingeneral (the degree to which international students would like to work and study with Japanese students) as rated
on a 7-point scale (1. do not like at all, 4. neither like nor dislike, and 7. like very much), and their study
purposes in Japan (Oka et al., 1996).
(b) Risk Management: (1) the place they were when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred; (2) their
behavior patterns after the earthquake (stayed where there were, evacuated to non-damaged areas such as theKansai Region, temporary return to their home countries, other); (3) ways of gathering earthquake-related
information (Japan’s TV and radio, other countries’ TV and radio, Japan’s websites, other countries’ websites,
information from families and/or friends from home countries, information from friends in Japan, other); (4)ways of gathering earthquake-related information from the university (university’s website, professors at theuniversity, clerical staff, other); ways of gathering information usually (website, email, bulletin board, material
distributed, other); and, (5) difficulty in understanding information from the university in Japanese (no problem
at all, have difficulty sometimes, have difficulty in understanding always).
(c) Cultural Competency in Japan: the level of satisfaction with daily lives and adaptation to their lives inJapan (communication, culture experience and language fields) as rated on a 7-point scale (1. strongly disagree,
4. neither to say either, and 7. strongly agree).
Procedure
To avoid the influence of the international students’ Japanese language abilities on their responses, weprepared the questionnaire in Japanese and then translated into English and Chinese. The translation accuracy
was confirmed by translating back into Japanese from the other two languages.
In addition, we conducted a preliminary survey with four international students and revised accordingly
based on their comments and feedback. Then we conducted a main survey using this revised questionnaire toinvestigate and analyze the above items.
We distributed the Chinese version of the questionnaire to Chinese students, whereas the other two
versions to other international students. All of the students were free to download a different version from theuniversity’s website if they did not wish to use the one they originally received.

Results
Demographic Factors, Cultural Competency and Studying Purposes in Japan
The international students’ demographic information is shown in Table 1. From the results, we found thatthe male-to-female radio was 6:4, and their average age was 26.9 years. The six major countries of origin were
China, South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka, which was similar to JASSO’s distribution(2012). Regarding the student status, about 1/3 were undergraduate students and over half of them were graduate
students, whereas “others” included international exchange students, research students, and accredited auditors.
Among their periods of stay in Japan, over 60% were between one and four years. A total of 166 students had
passed the JLPT-Level 1, and the examination pass rate for “undergraduate students,” “graduate students,” and“others” was 55.2%, 31.6%, and 43.3% respectively, which showed that “undergraduate students” have thehighest Japanese language proficiency and “graduate students” have the lowest. Over 80% of the students wereprivately financed students. The average score of their likeableness of Japanese students in general was 10.6,
which meant they perceived Japanese students as somewhat likeable.
The questions of cultural competency (their satisfaction and adaptation) are shown in Table 2. The
reliability of the responses to these 15 items was .67, which is considered to be reliable for its internalconsistency. The average score of their competency was 76.97 (SD=10.10, range: 47–126), which showed thatthe international students adapted to some extent and were slightly satisfied with their lives in Japan.
Table 1 International Students' Demographic Information
GenderAverage age
Nationalities(Top 6)Student status
Period of Stayin JapanJapanese Language
Proficiency
Economic situation
Likeableness

Male: 236 (59.4%)
Female: 161 (40.6%)
26.9 (SD = 4.24, Range: 19.1–44.0)
Chinese: 55.4%
South Korean: 11.8%
Malaysian: 5.3%
Bangladeshis: 5.0%
Vietnamese: 4.3%
Sri Lankan: 3.5%
Graduate: 51.9%
Others: 13.8%
Undergraduate: 34.3%
Less than 1 year: 34 (8.6%)
1–2 years: 97 (24.4%)
2–3 years: 104 (26.2%)
3–4 years: 67 (16.9%)
4–5 years :35 (8.8%)
5–6 years: 22 (5.5%)
6–7 years: 14 (3.5%)
Over 7 years: 24 (6.0%)
JLPT: L1/N1 166 (41.8%)
Self-evaluation: Average: 56.4%
SD : 27.0%
Range: 0.0% - 100.0%
National Expenditure: 70 (17.6%)
Private Expenditure: 327 (82.4%)
Average: 10.6
SD : 2.1
Range: 4–14

Table 2 International Students' Cultural Competency
1. It is funny to do a research/study at the university.
2. Sometimes I am puzzled because I can not understand Japanese greetings and its courtesy.
3. I think my behaviors are limited because I am conspicuous for my foreigner identification.
4. My emotional changes became intense after coming to Japan.
5. I always feel lonely after coming to Japan.
6. I feel my expertise has been enhanced.
7. I can learn research methods, special skills, etc.
8. I am confident of getting my degree.
9. I associate with different types of people.
10. I have foreign friend/s.
11. My communication with professors has strengthened.
12. I can experience Japanese culture.
13. My knowledge of Japan has widened and my understanding about Japan has become better.
14. My Japanese fluency has become better.
15. I was able to learn other foreign languages too.

Figure 1 shows the international students’ purposes of studying in Japan. From the results, we found thatover 60% were “to change their own future,” followed by “to get a degree,” “to see Japan as it is one of thedeveloped countries,” and so on (multiple choices). In addition, significant differences were found among theeight purposes when conducting Cochran’s Q Test (p<.001). Table 3 shows the results of multiple comparison
tests (McNemar) among them. Here we can see there were no significant differences among Purposes 1, 2 and 5,
nor among Purposes 3, 6 and 8, which suggests that purposes of 1, 2 and 5 were considered similarly, while
purposes of 3, 6 and 8 might be similar, too. As there were significant differences between Purpose 4 and theother purposes, it can be said that Purpose 4 was considered the most important one.
Ge (1999) mentions that compared with other countries’ students, Chinese students experienced moreculture shock in understanding and accepting the Japanese culture and customs, dealing with interpersonal
relationships and acquiring the Japanese language. And it is suggested that the more complicated studying
purposes they have, the lower achievement of satisfaction for Chinese students. In order to examine this, we
divided the students into two groups: the Chinese students and the others, and then conducted t-test(Independent-sample)1. It was found that there were more diverse purposes for the Chinese students than theother countries’ students (t(393)=5.31, p<.001). In order to clarify whether there are any differences between the
Chinese students and other countries’ students, we conducted t-test (Independent-sample) and found that Chinese
students had significantly higher cultural competency than other countries’ students (Ms=79.91 & 73.24, t(393)==6.85, p<.001), which is the opposite of Ge’s implication (1999).
Finally, we conducted a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis taking the total score of the 15 items for
Cultural Competency as the dependent variable, their demographic factors (age, gender, nationality, economic
situation, period of stay in Japan, Japanese language proficiency, likeableness of general Japanese students)2, andstudy purposes as independent variables. As a result, we found that nationality, age, likableness of Japanese
students had significant influences (β= -.29, p<.001; β=.14, p<.01; β=.33, p<.001, respectively), while their
Japanese language proficiency had slightly significant influences (β=.12, p<.10). The model’s regression formula
was R2= .25, p<.001.
Purpose 1. To learn Japanese language

43.6%

Purpose 2. To see Japan as developed country

50.4%

Purpose 3. For economic factors

8.8%

Purpose 4. To change my own future

61.5%

Purpose 5. To get a degree
Purpose 6. To finish my doctoral dissertation
Purpose 7. No special reasons
Purpose 8. Others
0.0%

50.6%
7.1%
2.0%
8.6%
10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

Figure 1. International Students’ Study Purposes in Japan

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

Purpose 1
Purpose 2
Purpose 3
Purpose 4
Purpose 5
Purpose 6
Purpose 7
Purpose 8

Table 3 Results of Multiple Comparison Tests among the Purposes
Purpose 1 Purpose 2 Purpose 3 Purpose 4 Purpose 5 Purpose 6 Purpose 7 Purpose 8――
p <.001
p <.001―
p <.001
p <.05p <.001―
p <.001
p <.01―
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001―－
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.01―
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001
p <.001―－－

Relationship between Information-gathering Capacity and Behavior Patterns
Regarding the place where the international students were when the earthquake occurred, we found thatover 80% were in their residences (Saitama Prefecture), 3.1% were in other places, only 1 student was in thedisaster-damaged area, and the remaining 15.1% were overseas including their home countries as it was thespring break between semesters. In addition, we found that 43.6% stayed where they were and 8.2% went to a
non-damaged area (e.g., Kansai) in Japan, while 33.7% went back to their home countries and 14.5% went toother countries.
Then we analyzed the international students’ ways of gathering earthquake-related information and foundthat they primarily used “Japan’s media” mostly (72.7%), followed by “Japan’s websites (66.6%),” “overseas’websites (56.9%),” “overseas’ media (43.6%),” and so on (multiple choices). Regarding the source of
information at the university, 74.0% used the “university’s website,” followed by “professors (36.5%),” ”clerks
at the university (11.7%),” and so on (multiple choices).
In order to clarify the influences of their information-gathering capacity, and cultural competency, as wellas their demographic factors, on their behavior patterns immediately after the earthquake, we conducted
Discriminant Analysis, taking their behavior patterns as the dependent variable, and their demographic factors,
cultural competency and ways of gathering relevant information as independent variables (Table 4).
As Table 4 shows, Model 1 divided their behavior patterns as “stayed where they were” and “went to otherplaces,” while Model 2 examined the four patterns in detail. From the two models’ predicted value of the Group
Membership, we found that Model 1 is better than Model 2. Therefore, we used Model 1’s results in this study.
We can see that age, study purposes, capacities of information-gathering and cultural competency had positive
influences, while negative effects for gender, economic situation, nationality, Japanese language proficiency
were found. These results suggest that those older male Chinese government-supported students, who had morediversity of studying purposes and higher capacities of using media to collect related information in Japaneseand cultural competency, preferred to stay where they were. On the other hand, those younger female
privately-supported students, who had higher Japanese language ability, preferred to go to other places toevacuate. In addition, no significant effects for the period of stay in Japan and likeableness of Japanese students
were found.
Table 4 Results of Discriminant Analysis
Model 2 (3 Functions).32(Function 1);.20 (Function 2)
p <.001 (1-3);
p <.05 (2-3)
Function 1
Function 2.48.01
Age: .40.01.30
Gender: -.51
-.23
.003
Economic situation: -.23
.34
.55
Stay period in Japan: .05.13.73
Nationality: -.20-.39
.55
Japanese language: -.38
-.08
-.05
Study purpose: .25.01.05
Likeableness of Japanese students: .01.67-.31
Information-gathering by Japanese: .45.32.05
Cultural Competency: 27
Going nowhere:.29-.01
Goinhg nowhere: .23
Group Centroids
Went to other areas: -.42-.61
Others: -.25
Temporary return:.01.07
Others:
-.64
.23
33.3%
Predicted Group Membership 53.3%
Canonical correlation
Wilks's lambda

Model 1 (1 Function).24
p < .05

Finally, regarding the international students’ difficulty in understanding Japanese information from theuniversity, 61.1% stated “no problem at all,” 31.7% said “somewhat difficult” while the remaining 7.2%
expressed that “it is always difficult to understand.” Then we analyzed the relationship between theirunderstanding of Japanese information and behavior patterns by conducting Chi-square test, but found no
significant relationship.

Discussion
There are two main purposes of this study. The first purpose is to investigate how international students ina metropolitan region (Saitama Prefecture) used media to collect relevant information immediately after theGreat East Japan Earthquake occurred, and what kind of behavior patterns they preferred, and their relationship.
As a result, it was clarified that (a) the students primarily accessed Japan’s mass media and various websites tocollect relevant information, (b) over 2/5 of them stayed where they were and over half of them went to otherplaces including non-disaster area in Japan, their home countries and other places, and (c) students who hadhigher capacities of gathering earthquake-related information preferred to stay where they were. From theseresults, it can be said that the capacities of using Japan’s media might help them collect necessary information inorder to make appropriate decisions about whether they should stay or go to other places including their homecountries.
The second purpose of this study is to clarify how their information-gathering capacities and culturalcompetency, as well as their demographic factors, related to behavior patterns immediately after the East Great
Japan Earthquake occurred. Table 4 shows that their age, gender, economic situation, nationality, study purpose,
capacity of using Japanese media, and cultural competency all contributed to their behavior patterns. Asinternational students’ capacities of using Japan’s media had the largest effects on their preference for staying
where they were, followed by their cultural competency and age, it can be said that their decision to stay in Japanor not had been greatly influenced by these three factors. On the other hand, considering that students who hadhigher Japanese language proficiency preferred to go to other places, while their period of staying Japan had noeffects on their behavior patterns, it is suggested that Japanese language proficiency and period of stay in Japan
had far fewer influences than their capacities of using media and cultural competency. From these results, it canbe said that one of the important ways to support international students when emergencies occur in the future
might be to cultivate their capacity of using media and raise their cultural competency including their adaptationand satisfaction in Japan.
Additionally, in this study, we also examined the international students study purpose in Japan and its
relationship with cultural competency and behavior patterns in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
As a result, we found that the Chinese students not only had more diversity of study purposes in Japan than theother nationalities’ students, but also had higher cultural competency compared with other nationalities’ students
and preferred to stay in Japan after the earthquake. The results of this study are different from those of previous
research (eg., Ge, 1999; Oka et al., 1996). One of the reasons would be that this study targeted international
students with more diversities, such as nationalities (Chinese, Korean, and others), economic situation(government-supported and privately supported), likeableness of Japanese students and Japanese language
proficiency (score from JLPT and percentage from self-evaluation), and so on, while the previous researchmainly focuses on privately-supported Chinese students. Considering that there are nearly two decades between
the present study’s results and that of the reference research, and the fact that Chinese students compose thelargest percentage of international students in Japan, it is important to examine international students’ study
purposes and their cultural competency. Furthermore, as the students’ capacities of using Japan’s media had great
impact on their behavior patterns and the wider the range of usage of different media, such as cell phones,
smartphones, PCs and so on, there is a necessity to examine the international students’ external and internal
factors with the changing times.

Conclusion
In sum, (a) the international students in a metropolitan region (Saitama Prefecture) primarily accessed
Japan’s mass media and various websites to collect relevant information immediately after the Great East Japan
Earthquake occurred, (b) nearly half of the students stayed where they were while over half of them preferred to
go to other places including their home countries, (c) compared with other international students, Chinese
students had more diverse purposes for studying in Japan and higher cultural competency, which was found tocontribute to their behavior patterns after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and (d) their cultural competency inJapan and information-gathering capacities, as well as their demographic factors (age, gender, economic
situation, nationality, Japanese language proficiency,), all influenced their behavior patterns in the aftermath ofthe earthquake. In this respect, it can be suggested that the influence of international students’ capacity of using
Japan’s media, their study purposes in Japan and their cultural competency had an important effect on theirresponse to emergencies.
Recently, risk management and responding to media have become a key issue when emergencies occur.
However, from the viewpoint of a recipient, how best to use media and take advantage of the information
becomes another important social issue as there are so many media and it is easy for users to transmit
information even if it is incorrect. It is reasonable to imagine that people might believe incorrect information,such as rumors, more easily when an emergency happens (e.g., Sato, 2012; Sasaki, 2011). Therefore, how best to
cultivate the user’s skill and capacity in media literacy becomes an important issue to be examined further. The
authors believe that the present study’s results have some implications for future research in related fields.
The present study analyzed international students in a metropolitan region (Saitama Prefecture). However,there is also a necessity to examine and compare with data from international students in other places including
disaster-damaged areas. In addition, from the viewpoint of interpersonal relationship’s influence on behavior
patterns and media usage, it is necessary to examine this in detail. Research for generalizing the findings of thisstudy will also be a meaningful orientation in the future.
Note1) As “Study purpose” is a nominal variable, we calculated by weighting way as follows: “1” point calculated for eachpurpose, and then used the total score if the students had multiple choices.
2) As “gender,” “nationality” and “economic situation” are all nominal variables, we named “male” and “female” as “1” and“2” for “gender,” “Chinese” and “the others” as “1” and “2” for “nationality,” and “government-supported” and “privatelysupported” as “1” and “2” for “economic situation,” respectively.

Acknowledgements
Part of the results had been reported at the 27th Annual Conference of the Japan Society for Educational Technology,
at Tokyo Metropolitan University. The authors would like to thank all of the international students who responded to thequestionnaire.

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