 During the 1980s, however, "kikokushijo" came to be seen as a new elite rather than as problems; their language and cultural skills gained respect as valuable tools for the internationalisation of Japan.As of 1997, over 300 universities offered relaxed admissions criteria for "kikokushijo", a system which had been attacked as preferential treatment and reverse discrimination.They are often misperceived as fluent speakers of English, though many in fact resided in non-Anglophone countries.