Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has announced an ambitious plan to train 50,000 young people in the Japanese language and send them to Japan for employment opportunities. The announcement was made on Sunday through a video message shared on his official X account.
Outlining the vision of the initiative, Sarma said the Assam government will provide comprehensive foreign language training to the state’s youth, beginning with Japanese. “Our goal is to train boys and girls of Assam in foreign languages, with the first batch learning Japanese,” he said, adding that the target is to send 50,000 youths to Japan in the coming years.
The programme, titled the Chief Minister’s Foreign Languages Initiative for Global Human Talent (CM-FLIGHT), aims to equip Assam’s youth with language and cultural skills, enabling them to explore global employment opportunities. “The CM-FLIGHT scheme will empower Assam’s youth with foreign language skills and open doors to global working opportunities to make them economically strong,” Sarma stated.
In the first phase, 180 students will undergo Japanese language and cultural training, receive job placement support, and be offered financial assistance to ensure smooth access to opportunities in Japan. The Chief Minister said this initiative would further strengthen Indo-Japan relations across sectors and foster closer people-to-people connections between Assam and Japan.
Expressing gratitude to Japanese official Nishikawa, Sarma announced a major fee reduction for the language programme. “When we launched this scheme, the programme fee was ₹3.6 lakh. Out of this, ₹1 lakh was to be covered by the Assam government and ₹50,000 by the Japanese government. The remaining ₹2.1 lakh had to be borne by us,” Sarma explained.
He further revealed that after discussions with the Japanese government, the programme cost had been reduced to ₹1.8 lakh. “This means the total fee for the course now stands at only ₹30,000 after government subsidies,” the Chief Minister said.
The CM-FLIGHT initiative marks a strategic step towards enhancing Assam’s global workforce potential while creating new avenues for youth empowerment through international collaboration and skill development.
