1. The Reason I Researched This Area
In spring semester, I researched endangered languages in Japan. Then I became interested in new linguistic problems in Japan. Therefore I decided to about learn policies and efforts of Japanese language education for foreigners. The reasons I’m going to focus on Japanese language education for Brazilians are three: First, the rate of school atendance (通学率) of Brazilian children are 15-19 years old has increased dramatically from 9.0% in 1995 to 57.8% in 2010 at except Brazilian schools (移民の子どもの教育の現状と課題/The status quo and problems of education for immigrant's children). Second, the linguistic distance between Japanese and Portuguese, is very far. If the linguistic distance is far, it is difficult for learners to master the language, or that takes a lot of time to do. Third, Brazilians in Japan are aging and decreasing, but they come to settle permanently in Japan. In 2007, there were 320,000 Brazilians in Japan, but in 2016 there were 180,000 because of the final shock caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers (リーマンショック) (法務省 第1部 出入国管理をめぐる近年の状況). As such, the situation of Brazilian community suggests what might happen if full-scale immigration policy is adopted in Japan.
2. Where Do Brazilians in Japan Live?
The majority of Brazilians live in Tokai area (Aichi, Shizuoka, Gifu and Mie prefectures), Kanto, especially the northern area (Gunma, Tochigi and Ibaraki prefecture) and Kansai, especially Shiga prefecture. The reason they live in these areas is for work. Most of them work at factories as blue-collar workers or limited-term workers. These area have many factories for example TOYOTA, so foreigners come to live in and gather around there (都道府県のブラジル人比率番付 都道府県・市町村ランキングサイト).
Recently, the population of Brazilians in Japan has been decreasing, but one area where Brazilians have been increasing is Izumo city (島根県出雲市) in Shimane prefecture because the big factory, Izumo-Murata -Factory was built in this city. Izumo is one of the central cities in Sanin area that is a typical underpopulated area. In 2012, the number of Brazilians was 824 and in 2017 the number had risen to over 2,000. Now, about 70 percent of foreigners in Izumo are Brazilian (出雲市の人口/The population of Izumo city)
3. What Support for Japanese Language Education is Provided by the Local Governments, NPOs and National Government?
In Hamamatsu city (静岡県浜松市), which is located in Shizuoka prefecture and has the largest population of Brazilian in Japans, at least seven NPOs are working on Japanese language support. Hamamatsu has a population of 796,114 people, so the city has 97 elementary schools and 49 junior high schools. One NPO covers 29 elementary schools and 17 junior high schools so it can be said the range of work is large.
The local government has policies of educational support for foreign children: guidance for entering a school at moving in Hamamatsu (転入時の就学案内), a continuous grasp of situation of entering school, in short it means ongoing support for entering school (就学状況の継続的な把握) and minute supports to enter a school (就学に向けたきめ細やかな支援). As a result of these policies, by 2013 there were no foreign children not attending school in Hamamatsu (自治体国際化フォーラム206号 「多文化のとびら―外国人の子どもたちに夢と希望をー浜松市の取り組み」).
Hamamatsu city is an urban area. The next case is in suburban area, Kani city (岐阜県可児市) in Gifu prefecture. The local government carries out a policy of support under the study security for foreign children. The Board of education founded, and administers バラ教室KANI which is intended for 6 to 15 years old. It teaches basic Japanese and school rules in Japan.
An NPO named 可児市国際交流協会 holds a lot of classes outside of school for foreign children who are different ages and have various purposes for studying Japanese. 「さつき教室」was created to help children to go to high school or technical college (専門学校), so its target is children who are over the age of compulsory education.「ゆめ教室」is an institution for children who are not going to school, and are staying indoors (引きこもり).「きぼう教室」is class that provides supplementary teaching for children who go to public school.「おひさま教室」and「ひよこ教室」are classes for 5-year-old children, but there are some of differences. The former’s target is children before entering school, and the latter’s target is children just before entering school. The latter has more things to need to do than the former, for example, learning about an elementary school (NPO法人可児市国際交流協会 子どものための各種支援教室).
The next case is in a small town on the outskirts. It is Sakahogi town (岐阜県坂祝町) in Gifu prefecture. It had a population of 8,227 people on October 1st in 2017, which is the smallest population in a local autonomous body, and a high rate of Brazilian residents. In this town, there was a 虹の架け橋教室 made by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (文部科学省) to educate children who didn’t enter school or were truants, but it has finished in 2014. There were five more similar programmes in other towns in Gifu prefecture so it isn’t unique to this town. Other effort is that Japanese teachers who are reserved only them are in schools, and they help foreign children with school life.
It is difficult for the local governments which has small population to launch an educational support for foreign children because they doesn't have enough budget to spend for supporting children. In addition, the Government's effort has often a limit, so that there is not vitality.
4. What Support Is Provided by other actors, like Companies?
At first, I will explain the reasons that companies provide Japanese language support for foreigners. First, Japanese language education leads to increase productivity because of good communication. Second, according to Japan online school’s representative director Kei Koike, the Japanese language, especially reading and writing, is difficult for people from non-Kanji area. In addition, Japanese language has Hiragana, Katakana, Chinese character and Keigo. Third, Japanese language education for foreign workers is CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility 企業の社会的責任) for Japanese companies. If one worker don’t speak Japanese language well, it can be an obstacle to works. One company can dismiss him by it. There is a Japanese class for foreign workers to stabilize their livings.
Mitsui, especially Mitsui chemistry group (三井化学グループ) carry out support for Japanese language learning on line and at the offices as well as promotion of cross-cultural understanding (多文化理解) by study meetings. ヤマハ発動機（株）IMカンパニー in Hamamatsu city provides support for Japanese language learning in order for foreigners to live as residents of the community and as employees and to become the bridge between one language and the other, one culture and the other. At first it started these policies to increase productivity, and foreign worker’s attitude toward learning Japanese language was serious, so that Japanese came to be at ease with foreigners, and there were conversations more than ever. It can be said that each attitude led to production of chance to talk with foreigners.
In Toyota city, Aichi Prefecture, there is educational support for foreigners not only from companies but various other groups, including Nagoya University, NPOs, companies and residents. Toyota city, which had 425,782 people on December 1st in 2017, is an industrial city because Toyota, the most famous and largest carmaker in Japan, is based in this city. The population of foreigners was 16,163 on October 1st in 2017.
This policy named とよた日本語学習支援システム was launched because of a lack of communication. According to the investigation by Toyota city, Japanese and foreigners' conversation is only typical talk, for example daily greetings such as 'good morning'. At work, they tend to have one-side conversations made up of commands from a boss. Unfortunately, if these situations continue, foreigners' Japanese language skills won’t improve.
Chart 1 The rate of different kinds of talk in Japanese with foreigners in a community and company
In this educational policy, various actors appear. A system coordinator (システム・コーディネーター) acts as go-between for teachers and students. A program coordinator (プログラム・コーディネーター) makes their learning plan which is important to improve their Japanese language skills. Also, the existence of a Japanese language partner (日本語パートナー) is important for foreigners to adapt to the community because the partner's role is to talk with them in Japanese.
This system provides various classes: conversation classes, reading and writing classes and comprehensive classes which are treated conversation, reading and writing a Japanese. This educational system has some advantages from the point of view of teachers. First, it separates students into the classes above. Second, as it understand the states of their Japanese skills well, students are able to find effective learning. Teachers expect their students to be spontaneous learners. It is the goal of this system.
5. Conclusion: How should we create the multi-cultural society?
It can be said that it is important for multi-cultural society for people to be open with foreigners. Tiny things can change the status quo. Moreover it is necessary to have cross-cultural understanding. This theory which is from above chapters suggests that not only foreigners should learn the language which is used in the country that they migrated to, but also that the local people should study the languages immigrants speak. This leads to deeper trust between the local people and foreigners.
Communication is important too. Of course, typical communication like greetings are important for human relations, but only that is not enough. To chat and have a talk creates rich human relations and an improvement of Japanese language skills. If the above things are achieved, the world would approach the multi-cultural society.
6. References
志水宏吉、山本ベバリーアン、鍛冶致、ハヤシザキカズヒコ 明石書店 2013 『「往還する人々」の教育戦略』/ The strategy of education for people "who are going backward and forward between two places"
豊田市 とよた日本語学習支援システム
日本経済新聞 2016年3月8日 外国人5年以上定住3割 島根・出雲市、21年目標
毎日新聞 2017年3月30日 市民の審判を前に
三井化学 従業員とともに ダイバーシティの推進
浜松国際交流協会 HICE 企業の日本語教育におけるカリキュラムに関する研究報告
文部科学省 平成22年度文部科学白書 第7章 国際交流・協力の充実
SlideShare 日本企業における外国人への日本語教育