Abstract
Learning foreign languages has always bring benefits to individuals as they can communicate in the
target language and understand the culture as well as expanding their knowledge (Sakuragi , 2006). In
addition, Richards (2001) states that learning foreign languages is an investment as many people spend
their time to learn just to explore the world. Therefore, learning foreign languages attracts many people
as it develops many opportunities for individuals who prefer to understand the new culture. Other than
English language, the Malaysia government is encouraging the students at tertiary level to learn the
foreign languages such as Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, German, French, Spanish and Japanese (Roswati
et. al, 2007). Attention has be given to the Japanese language as it has been expended in 133 countries,
especially in the East Asia and South East Asia countries (Heida & Maserah, 2014). In a report by The Japan
Foundation (2017), there are 176 centres in Malaysia offer the Japanese language courses to the public
and additional 54 boarding schools and 68 national secondary schools offer this language as elective
courses ( Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2020). At the university level, this language is offered as core
courses or elective subjects, depending on the course requirements (Jamila & Talaibek, 2017).