The primary objective of this study is to identify the effect of reducing teaching hours from five to four face-to-face teaching hours in a beginners' Japanese course at the University of Canberra, Australia. The results of 2007, 2008 and 2009 cohorts of Japanese students' results are compared to consider the effect of the reduction in classroom teaching hours in 2009. The results indicate that reducing face-to-face teaching hours from five to four hours per week may cause a significant increase in the number of students discontinuing their Japanese study and students getting lower grades, with the retention rate and language proficiency both decreasing. The implications of this study for retention of students, language proficiency and educational outcomes will be discussed.