Research Report for Cycle 2

How do we communicate with foreigners living in Japan ?

My Starting Story and Interests

I am interested in foreign residents in Japan because when I researched the LGBTQ+ in Research Cycle 2, I referenced the website about the multiculturalism society by local government. This website showed not only LGBTQ+ but also foreign residents, and I did not know them very much. They have a lot of problems; refugees, technical intern trainees, workers and so on.

Also, some foreigners live in front of my house, and they work early in the morning. I was surprised at their actions which are that they go to the convenience store and operate a mobile in front of it. I always wonder their behavior, and I found the reason why is to use wi-fi. Maybe their room is inadequate communication environment, so its problem is related to the low salary.

There is not only the low salary problem but also many problems for foreign residents in Japan, so, I want to learn it in detail and study to create the society in which everyone can live comfortably.

My Research Focus

I learnt some voices and stories for foreign residents in Japan; students, workers and technical intern trainees, and found common problem which is the walls of Japanese. For example. Technical intern trainees have low salaries, too long working hours and power and sexual harassment problems. The lack of understanding Japanese leads to these complex problems. There is nothing better than understanding English, but it is very difficult.

Therefore, I am going to focus on the response of Japanese and foreigners to impression of each other and some supports such as “やさしい日本語”.

My Research Questions

・How do we communicate Japanese to foreigners？

・What should we do for Japanese in order to increase the number of understanding foreign residents?

Do you know the population of foreign residents in Japan？

According to Minamino (2020), Many foreigners (2,823,565 people) live in Japan, and Tokyo(541,807 people) is the city with the most foreigners living in the country. Compare the number of foreigners living in Japan to 100 people, they are tend to live in metropolis such as Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka and so on. The region which foreigners live in is vary.

Voice and Story (A foreign student and a worker)

・Alexixa Misutu (16-year-old, from Brazil)

She moved to Japan from Brazil five years ago when her parents were hired by a factory in Izumo. She could not make any friends because she did not understand Japanese, which cause her to became a school refuser, and she abandoned the hope of further education. She spent more than a year hopping around around part-time jobs, unable to settle any of them. Eventually, Izumo city office and a non-profit organization helped her to find a job.

→ The supports for her was not enough and was not when she wanted to be.

From NHK WORLD-JAPAN.(2020). Japan failing to support young Brazilians.

Retrieved 06, Augusto, 2022 from Japan failing to support young Brazilians | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

Survey 1 : Pros and cons of more foreigners in Japan (For Japanese)

The bar charts by Okada Marisa(2020) shows pros and cons of increasing the number of foreigners in Japan (left side) and in your home town(right side).

A lot of Japanese people agreed with more foreigners in Japan (70%), but the proportion of Japanese who agreed with more foreign residents in their home town was fewer than them (57%). Also, according to age group, the older the age, the more opposed to increasing the number of foreigners (Blue line).

Survey 2: Foreigners' worries about living in Taito-ku. (For foreigners and Japanese)

The bar graph by Taito-ku, illustrates the worries about life in Japan for foreigners and compares Japanese and foreigners' responses. The top problems foreigners have with life in Japan are related to Japanese problem.

Also, there is a big difference between foreigners and Japanese' expectations. It is important for us to find the perception gap in order to support appropriately.

Local governments’ supports

In Taito-ku, Japanese classroom for foreigners and volunteer lectures are established. One of the Japanese classroom is disaster prevention. In Japan, earthquake often happens, and this lecture is absolutely essential for foreigners. Also, following the result of this research, they make the leaflet about a resident tax in Tokyo's 23 wards for foreigners.

In Kawasaki city, 外国人市民代表者会議 was found in December, 1996 because foreigners do not have votes and the opportunity for participation in municipal government is few. City workers invite applications for foreign delegates, choose 26 peoples and perform their task for all foreign residents in Taito-ku.

やさしい日本語

"やさしい日本語" is to make short sentences and paraphrase in easy Japanese for foreigners. The start was Great Hanshin Awaji Earthquake in January 17, 1995. Many foreigners could not understand important information because they were lack of knowledge of Japanese. In the disaster, the proportion of Japanese casualties showed at about 1%, however, the percentage of foreigners casualties scored at more than 2%. In order to prevent the situation from happening, the action was launched.

When Kumamoto earthquake happened in 2016, Foreigners and Japanese could not communicate and kept a distance. One of the cause is that Japanese do not know "やさしい日本語".

Next, I will focus on the survey how many people know it.

Do you know “やさしい日本語”？

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the proportion of knowing "やさしい日本語" is 29.6% and not knowing is 68.1 %. A lot of Japanese do not understand it and, especially some youngers do not know it(more than 73%). 60s have the highest rate and, the graph tends to be lower in youngers.

The business activity using “やさしい日本語”

・Seven-Eleven Japan

Seven-Eleven have many foreign staffs (10% of all), and their policy is that the realization of a workplace where everyone can flourish in Multicultural society.

One of the action is "おもてなし"training. Not only the way of attending to serve a customer but also Japanese culture is taught by training. For example, the importance of time.

What I've learned and my new interests

We should understand the problem of foreigners and how to support(やさしい日本語). Some elderlies, I mentioned above, do not understand foreigners because they have stereotypes of them, and the reason why youngers do not know "やさしい日本語" is to study English hard.

Surely, it is important for youngers to study English, however it is need for them to know "やさしい日本語". Even if you can speak English, you may communicate with foreigners by "やさしい日本語".

In conclusion, We use not only English but also "やさしい日本語" for making the multicultural society.

I want to know the effective ways to make people aware of the existence of "やさしい日本語" and whether or not there are similar actions in other countries.

Sources of information

・NHK WORLD-JAPAN.(2020). Japan failing to support young Brazilians.

Retrieved 06, Augusto, 2022 from Japan failing to support young Brazilians | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News

・NHK 放送文化研究所 https://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/research/yoron/pdf/20200801_5.pdf　最終閲覧日２０２２年８月５日

・出入国管理庁「令和２年度在留外国人に対する基礎調査報告書」https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001342229.pdf　最終閲覧日２０２２年８月５日

・出入国在留管理庁、文化庁「在留支援のためのやさしい日本語ガイドライン」

https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/kokugo_nihongo/kyoiku/pdf/92484001_01.pdf

最終閲覧日２０２２年８月５日

・文化庁「令和元年度『国語に関する世論調査』の結果の概要」

https://www.bunka.go.jp/koho_hodo_oshirase/hodohappyo/pdf/92531901_01.pdf

最終閲覧日２０２２年８月５日

・

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