The rationale behind choosing Japan, and especially Tokyo as a destination region for The Australian National University to focus on is due to the fact that greater Tokyo, as a metropolitan area, has unique features that including being an area spread in over three prefectures; with a massive population of around 39 million people. This uniqueness of the greater Tokyo Metropolitan makes it home to over 25% of the Japan’s population; and also the most densely inhabited urban area across the globe. The high population density makes it easier for the Australian National University to leverage on in regard to capturing the international students interest. This clearly means that by the use of the enhanced level of technology in Japan, The Australian National University can be able to acquire a significant market share of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area population, and this can become a key establishment for its international market penetration.
Introduction
The Australian National University has experienced increased recently international student demand. The organization, being a large education services provider, has to device ways to exploit this emerging space of opportunities so as to be able to become an effective global competitor (Westelius & Liu, 2017). With the rise in technology and technological gadgets such as IPads, Tablets, computers and smartphones, The Australian National University has a serene opportunity to become tap on the emerging opportunities in various countries such as Japan and Thailand. However, being the first time for such expansion and move to extend its services to the international arena, it is rational that the University opt for Japan market; especially Tokyo city for now.
Analysis of the greater Tokyo metropolitan population
Apart from being the most populous metropolitan area in the world, the greater Tokyo metropolitan has a demographic mix that is ideal for The Australian National University target market (Chen, et.al, 2014). Going by Japan’s National Census, it is evident that 68% of 39 million people living in Tokyo are in the working-age population class; which is on the age bracket of between 15 -64 years (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asian Development Bank Institute, & ILO, 2016). The other 15% of the population is comprised of children aged between 0-14; and the remaining 17% consist of the aged population that is beyond 65 years (Ciment & Ness, 2014). From the above data, it is evident that around 26.5 million people living in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area is young people, who are already working.
This is the main population that is in great need of education, given that it consists of people who are in their prime time, with career and professional goals (Eftekhari, 2018). With these ambitions, they already know that broadening their education is the main ingredient in their lives if they have to realize their career and professional goals. The problem comes when it comes to combining both work and education (Deardorff & Stern, 2016). Being at their prime age, these millions of people residing at the greater Tokyo metropolitan area are in need of resources to start of their lives; whereas others are beginning to have young families, and all this comes with extra expenditures (Deardorff & Stern, 2016). So, to them work is as important as life itself, because it is through such work occupations that they are able to feed their young families, get resources to invest for their future, as well as having decent lifestyles.
For a long time, these people have faced a dilemma when it comes to choosing work and education opportunities. A huge percentage of them; around 75% as argued by Deardorff, & Stern (2016); have opted to retain their jobs at the expense of opportunities to advance their education. This is due to the fact that most of the Tokyo based companies have capped the enrollment of their workers at regular learning programs whereby these employees have to always ask for permission to practically attend lessons, as well as go and physically sit for exams at their relevant universities (Chen, et.al, 2014). The reason as to why most of these companies have come up with such as ban is due to the fact that this trend has paved way for increased absenteeism in the working places, thus affecting the companies’ productivity.
So, as it stands now, millions of Tokyo residents are in dire need practical opportunities to advance their education; but without affecting their ability to work and attend their daily duties at their places of work (ICBL, et.al, 2016). This is exactly what The Australian National University comes to offer in this serene city, as it plans to leverage on the available technologies in Tokyo to offer education programs through the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, and online learning strategies (Schreuder, 2013). Through the use of virtual reality, as well as online learning strategies such as micro-learning, the university will be able to offer learning content to this huge population with great need for education without physical challenges (Essa, 2016). These strategies will easily integrate education to millions of residents residing in Tokyo without tampering with their busy daily schedules. This will ensure that education needs among a huge section of Tokyo residents will be realized without much difficulty (Dennis, 2018). Through the use of the above strategies, The Australian National University will be able to meet the basic education needs of the Tokyo people with much ease, given as a university, it will not be required to spend more on the acquisition of assets such as building and workers, as they will be able to virtually run their operations across Tokyo, with just a single physical office in the city; whereby, the students can physically be helped in case of errors in their programs.
The use of the above strategies will be a viable option, going by the fact that the internet penetration in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area stands at 91%, as compared to global average of 3.4%; whereas smartphone penetration at the region is at 85% (Walsh, 2013). This means that in the region, over 33 million people have smartphones, whereas around 35 million people have access to reliable internet (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Asian Development Bank Institute, & ILO, 2016). In fact, presently there is an immense research and development activities in Tokyo, with the aim of having a practical application of the 5G mobile network for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic as well as Paralympic games (Walsh, 2013). This is projected to increase the internet penetration in the country to a higher level, thus allowing more opportunities for The Australian National University to leverage on to offer virtual learning to the ballooning population in the region (Ciment & Ness, 2014). This makes Tokyo the ideal place for The Australian National University to extend it market.
Evaluation and recommendations
For The Australian National University to leverage on the new technologies to offer education to the ballooning population in the greater Tokyo region, it has to come up with a comprehensive as well as effective e-learning strategy (Essa, 2016). This will not only ensure accessibility of their courses, but to also ensure that the key risks that come along with this kind of system are largely kept on check (Yassine, Kadry & Sicilia, 2016). To realize this nature of operation, the university needs to adopt a well-developed digital strategy, whereby the core technologies and peripheral ones are properly distinguished (Westelius & Liu, 2017). The best way to do this is by ensuring that the core technologies that form the basis of their strategy are well-established and maintained.
This means that the university should embrace some core technologies such as the use of commercial Virtual Learning Environment; VLEs, along with the e-resources provided by their libraries (Wang, Fong & Kwan, 2010). Such use of VLEs along with e-resources from the university main library in Australia will be important since it will ensure that the online students across Tokyo can easily access to volumes of information and research papers that The Australian National University has ever stored in its virtual systems since it was established (Tan, 2008). This way, the university will ensure that the Tokyo based students have access to rich sources of information for the relevant courses that they undertake through the e-learning system (Spector, 2010). Regardless of the fact that these two core capabilities are no longer innovative, they are very key, since it guarantees on the quality of materials that the Tokyo students have access to in regard to the relevant fields and topics they are pursuing.
In addition, apart from the use of VLEs to ensure their students access to information customized for their relevant courses, the university should also go ahead and integrate peripheral technologies on their systems, as these are the ideal mediums that give them the edge over the other universities, provided that they will offer the Tokyo based students more choice (Rosenberg, 2011). This includes the integration of social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook, as well as cloud-based systems to the VLEs virtual learning system (Peterson, 2014). The integration of these sites will be important, going by the fact that it will allow The Australian National University lectures based in Australia to prepare short videos teaching on specific topics, and later uploading them on these platforms for the Tokyo based students to access them at their free time.
This will create the much desired flexibility that majority of the young-Tokyo residents are looking for when it comes to acquiring education (Schreuder,2013). Given that the information on these platforms either in form of videos or print can be accessed at any given time, and hour, it will mean that the millions of workers in Tokyo, will be able to access these educational materials at their free time either during weekends, or during their break hours in the job place (Liu, Huang & Wosinski, 2017). This way, they will not be able to interrupt their working sessions in search for education, and overall this will be a huge advantage for them (Mouri & Ogata, 2015). At the end of the day, they will produce the desired results in their job place in regard to being maximally productive, and during their free time, they will be able to acquire the much needed education at the comfort of their homes or offices; thus quenching the thirst for education (Nguyen & Preston, 2016). This way, The Australian National University will have helped these residents to satisfy two dire needs at a go; the need to be productive at the workplace, as well as the need to advance their education so as to stimulate their career progression.
The Tokyo residents have all technological gadgets including smartphones, as well as access to reliable internet. This means that all they need is a university that can leverage these resources to offer them education at a much flexible manner (ICHL & Cheung, 2014). This means that The Australian National University decision to come up with the above strategy is highly rational, given that they will allow these residents to access to the University’s data and educational materials in their main library in Australia, as well as allow the university lecturers to virtually interact with these students through the internet platforms though live video teaching, as well as prepared clips and videos (ICBL, et.al, 2016). This way, the students will be able to acquire education at their free time, thus fulfilling their career goals. This way, the University will have a stable market for its online course programs across Tokyo (ICWL, Kwan & Fong, 2015). So, overall, The Australian National University should go ahead and penetrate into Japan market, especially the larger Tokyo region for its new online programs and courses.