Dec 24 (Kyodo) - About 18 percent of more than 1,000 universities and other higher education institutions in Japan continued to reduce their in-person teaching to less than half of their total as of October due to the coronavirus pandemic, the education ministry said Wednesday.
Of those relying heavily on remote classes, many are based in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures, where record numbers of infections have been reported in recent weeks.
In an initial survey conducted by the ministry from late August through early September on 1,060 universities, junior colleges and other institutions, 377 said face-to-face teaching accounted for less than half of their entire classes.
According to the ministry, of the 377, 187 said in a follow-up survey that in-person lectures still have not reached half of their total as of Oct. 20.
