[kitski]

Monday, March 12
A senior high school in Tennessee which was the first to obtain authorization by the Japanese government in the United States closed Saturday, ending its nearly 20-year-old history, in the wake of a fall in the number of Japanese expatriates.

Tennessee Meiji Gakuin opened in Sweetwater, Tennessee, in 1989 as the first high school authorized by the Japanese education ministry, and graduated about 680 students. At its peak in mid-1990s, the co-ed boarding school had about 200 students, mainly children of employees posted in the United States by Japanese companies. But the school's intake fell in step with the drop in the number of Japanese expatriates. After the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, the school faced further difficulty in attracting students. On Friday, the school held its final graduation ceremony for 26 graduates.