Abstract
Japan has faced educational challenges associated with diversifying immigrant students for the last few decades since the government opened up the door to unskilled migrant workers. Despite the country’s strong emphasis on egalitarian education, a large academic gap between Japanese and immigrant students suggests unequal distribution of educational opportunities. The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of immigrant children’s educational experiences and family processes in Japan. After presenting demographic and descriptive information about immigrants and immigrant students in Japan, I present trends and issues related to immigrant children’s academic and school experiences. Based on literature review, I point out structural elements that bring challenges to immigrant students’ academic processes and immigrant family efforts in supporting their children’s education in Japan. The chapter concludes with discussion, suggestions for future studies, and recommendations for educational practices.
I experienced bullying at school in Japan. One day when I was a fourth grader, I was walking in a hallway. Suddenly, a boy bumped into me on purpose and said, “gaijin” (foreigner)! I was confused because I thought that I was Japanese. That is probably why my parents decided to send me to an international school in Japan.Mika, a girl with a Japanese mother and an American father
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, I use the term, immigrant children, for children whose parents came to Japan for various reasons such as migrant workers and refugees. As I note later, a significant number of migrant workers who originally planned to stay in Japan as temporary workers continue to reside in Japan for a long-term.
- 2.
Other reasons included a lack of financial resource (16 %) and families’ plans to go back to their countries (10 %).
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Yamamoto, Y. (2014). Immigrant Children’s Schooling and Family Processes in Japan: Trends, Challenges, and Implications. In: Dimitrova, R., Bender, M., van de Vijver, F. (eds) Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families. Advances in Immigrant Family Research, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9129-3_4
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