information technology industry. With about 10,000 graduates a year, Kosen colleges have not produced nearly enough graduates to meet the demands of Japanese industry as major corporations would give preference in job offers to foreign-trained students, who are perceived as more competent in the workplace than graduates of Japan's four-year universities. In Western Japan, the leading college of technology is the Kobe Institute of Computing. KIC was founded by Mr Tomio Fukuoka in 1958 as a small Electronics school in the city of Kobe, Hyogo prefecture, Japan, which was called ‘’Kobe Denshi’’ and received recognition as an “Institute of Advanced Vocational Education” from the Japanese Ministry of Education in 1988 for its vital contribution to Japanese computing society. KIC is the first IT College in Asia. Now, KIC is one of the major institutes for professional, vocational, and practice-oriented education in ICT and other digital industries in Japan with 17,700 alumni. A 2004 white paper from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology indicated that the colleges of technology are leaders in the use of apprenticeships and internships, with more than 90% of institutions offering this opportunity compared to 46% of universities and 24% of junior colleges. As of 2008, 23.1% of high school graduates study at colleges of technology with 99.6% being employed after graduation. Notes References - Japan External links Japanese Higher Education Institutions in the 21st Century: The challenge of globalization and internationalization discussion paper by Kumiko Aoki in the electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies, 4 November 2005. Japan