The number of Chinese students funded by the government to study in Japan has increased in recent years, an overseas study expert said.

Zhang Ning, deputy secretary-general of the China Scholarship Council, said the number increased to 738 in 2015 from 569 in 2013.

Zhang was speaking at the 2016 China-Japan University Forum, which was hosted in Beijing by the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Japan Science and Technology Agency.