07 Culture of Origin and Inherited Culture are Equally Important

Aronzo came to Japan from Peru with his parents when he was nine years old. It has been one year since he enrolled in Japanese public elementary school. He manages to talk in Japanese with his friends, but understanding the Japanese spoken by his teachers is so difficult that he just sits and waits for the end of the class. Older children sometimes teased him, saying, “speak English.”

One of his neighbors, Elena is also a Peruvian. But she perfectly understands Japanese because she was born in Japan. Yet her mother, who spends long hours working at a factory every day, does not understand Japanese. Therefore, it is Elena’s role to read out the information from the school to her mother. Elena loves her mother, but also worries about her mother coming to school on parents’ day, and how her friends would react to her mother’s illiteracy in Japanese.

▶ Culture of origin, inherited culture, and culture of where one lives are all important

It is important for migrant children that they are ensured the opportunity to keep in touch with the cultures to which they are connected. Those cultures are multiple, including the culture of their place of origin, the culture they have inherited from their parents or grandparents, and the culture of the community in which they presently live. As one can imagine, these cultures are all important for those children.

For a migrant child, the child’s mother tongue – the language of his/her place of origin – is a crucial means of communication and thinking. Language can be divided into communication language and cognitive academic language. Cognitive academic language is a crucial means to conduct abstract thinking and logical discussion. Some point out that if migrant children fail to acquire cognitive academic language during childhood, it could lead to semi-lingual proficiency in which the child’s ability in both Japanese and the mother-tongue remains at the conversation level, rather than multi-lingual proficiency in which both languages reach high levels of proficiency. This is the reason why it is important to ensure learning opportunities in children’s mother tongues.

Also, ensuring migrant children born in Japan opportunities to learn their inherited languages and cultures could promote self- respect, leading to positive acceptance of their roots.

▶ Being different is a right protected under international human rights treaties

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates in Article 27 that persons belonging to minority groups have the right with the other members of their group to enjoy their culture, to profess and practice their religion, and to use their own language. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also stipulates in Article 30 that children belonging to ethnic minority groups or indigenous groups have the same right to their culture, religion, and language. Based on these provisions, treating migrant children in the same way as Japanese is insufficient. Rather, it is required of the state to establish an environment where migrant children can appreciate their culture, religion, and language to which they are connected.

▶ Practices of multiculturalism in other countries

Countries like Canada and Australia adopt multiculturalism as their public policy. Multiculturalism is the idea of recognizing and actively promoting the equal co-existence of multiple cultures in a nation or society. C. Taylor, a credited theorist of multiculturalism, claims that the recognition of identity is an essential condition for a person to have a good life, and that multiculturalism is therefore important as it calls for the recognition of group belonging on which one’s identity is constituted. He further claims that respect for multiple cultures is crucial for the peaceful co-existence of diverse groups.

The actual practices of multicultural policies and the social situations under which such policies are implemented, differ by country
and time. There is also the emerging idea of interculturalism, which stresses active interactions and exchange between different cultures while respecting cultural diversity. Japan should also consider adopting multiculturalism as its public policy.

▶ Expand diverse educational practices such as schools for foreign children or ethnic classes

In Japan, there are about 200 schools for foreign children or international schools, with over 20,000 children. Also, in public elementary and junior high schools in Osaka and some other areas, ethnic education classes are provided for children to learn about their inherited culture. However, little, if any, public support is provided for such educational practices.

Making Japanese schools multicultural through the support of ethnic classes as well as expanding schools for foreign children and international schools are necessary for migrant children. Such policies should also be good for Japanese children as they provide diverse opportunities and possibilities to develop their sense of self-respect and uniqueness.