As of 2021, Japanese has the 3rd largest economy in the world. Knowing Japanese can bring more business opportunites. Products such as automobiles, electronics, clothing, etc. continue to rise in popularity around the world. Japanese pop culture continues to explode around the world. Whether it is anime, manga, sushi-making, ikebana, etc., knowing Japanese gives you direct access to the culture and traditions.  Japanese will set you apart from others. Having a less commonly learned language on your resume will make you stand out from the crowd.  Japanese is a great gateway to other East Asian languages. The sentence structure and honorific speech is similar to Korean; the writing system is taken from the ideographs used in Chinese.