Mid-career Japanese teacher Miki Takamura works at Sakura University, a private art university. Sakura University has been focusing on acquiring international students as part of its management strategy for the past ten years, and Takamura was hired as a full-time faculty member a year ago as part of this strategy. Almost all international students come from Kanji-using countries, and their Japanese language level at enrollment is equivalent to JLPT N2 (understanding Japanese used in daily situations and being able to comprehend somewhat broader Japanese used in a wider range of situations). Chancellor Muto, who wants all international students to obtain N1 by graduation and use it as an appeal for the university, strongly urges Takamura to improve the N1 acquisition rate. However, international students do not feel the necessity of obtaining N1, and Takamura believes that rather than focusing on N1 preparation, they should work on improving their conversational skills.