With the progress of globalization, the number of foreigners who live in Japan has increased. It would be usual that people who live next to you is from other countries. Despite the situation, Japanese people tend to set a boundary between Japanese and non-Japanese all the time. For example, foreigners are never called “Japanese” even if they can speak Japanese fluently and live along Japanese lifestyle. These people would be always called “foreigners” or “foreigners just like Japanese”. Or even if they have Japanese nationality, Japanese people would call them “foreigners with Japanese nationality”. They never use the word “immigrants”. Japanese people are apt to judge whether someone is Japanese or not only by their looks or languages. Why those who are from other countries are never considered as Japanese?

I think their experiences in early life are related to this situation. When I started thinking this problem, these following questions came to mind; how do children are taught about immigration or foreigners who live in Japan? And do they have opportunities to communicate with foreign people? At first, I asked my mother these questions because she is a teacher of elementary school. She said children had no chance to communicate with people from other countries except for ALT and they could learn about only the number of foreigners who live or come to Japan in the textbooks. It is ordinary situation in public schools. In my experience, I have never had a contact with foreigners except for ALT and my teachers said “stay away from them because they might be dangerous.” If one foreign child is in the class, he or she stands out in a negative way and other children would hesitate to speak to him or her.

However, it is not enough just to teach what immigration is or why they come to Japan and learn some languages. It might lead racial discrimination. Government should give children more opportunities to talk or play with foreigners. Then children could naturally learn how to communicate and feel no fear to foreigners. The boundary that we tend to set between Japanese and others will fade away.

In  the future, when Japan starts accepting immigration or refugees and the number of foreigner increases more, they would be left out of the society or communities in this unfriendly situation in Japan. It sometimes might lead conflicts. Unless thinking of people change, foreigners can never assimilate and become “Japanese”. Japanese people are sensitive to learning about foreign countries, but they should watch the situation in Japan now.

by Aya Sadahiro