However, by 2003, four of the primary and secondary programmes were terminated due to lack of teaching staff, while an additional two universities and one non-school institution began to offer Japanese language courses.
Students majoring in Japanese faced problems such as low wages and lack of opportunities to use their skills in professional contexts, leading to limits on the growth of interest in the language.
[1] Much language study is funded not indigenously, but rather through a portion of the US$95 million in official development assistance provided by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as additional private aid.
[1] The Japanese Language Proficiency Test has been offered in Kazakhstan since 2003, solely in the former capital of Almaty.
However, JETRO's Business Japanese Test was not offered in Kazakhstan or any other former Soviet Union member state as of 2006[update].