Looks like Japanese is cool! The Wall Street Journal [subscription required]has a front-page article on the growing numbers of people who study Japanese for fun, not business.

In the fall of 2002, the number of students studying Japanese in U.S. institutions of higher education rose to 52,238, a jump of 21% over 1998, when the previous survey was conducted. There were 34,153 students studying Chinese, an increase of 20%