Manufacturing powerhouse Aichi Prefecture is home to many foreign workers. Seeing the need for Japanese language education for their children, prefectural and corporate representatives are working together on innovative ways to get these youths the communication skills they need to thrive in Japan.
Classroom Premises and Tutors
At 5:00 pm, schoolchildren can be seen streaming into a company dormitory belonging to NGK Insulators, a leading ceramics maker in the city of Komaki, Aichi Prefecture. The children, mostly of Brazilian and Philippine nationality living in Komaki, are there to attend Japanese language classes taught by volunteer tutors, some of whom are NGK Insulators employees.
The children receive one-on-one instruction according to their level of Japanese proficiency, in subjects including Japanese for beginners and coaching to help with schoolwork. Ayumi Miyachi, a seventh grader whose parents are Brazilian, speaks Portuguese at home and is also proficient in English. She began learning Japanese a few years ago. “I enjoy the classes,” she says, “and I can understand school lessons in Japanese now.” As she has progressed in Japanese, she has begun to dream of becoming a surgeon working in Japan one day.
Another 13-year-old, Aimi Fukuhara, is the daughter of a Brazilian father and a mother of Japanese and Brazilian parentage. She has been a student in the Japanese class for four years now and says it has helped her clear up things she does not understand in school lessons. She dreams of becoming a fashion model in the future.
Aimi Fukuhara (left) and Ayumi Miyachi are students in the Japanese-language classes supported by NGK Insulators. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
The class, which is free of charge, is run by the Komaki-based Ishiki Cosmos Support Study Group and takes place in the evening twice a week in a meeting room at an NGK Insulators dormitory. The tutors include NGK Insulators employees who volunteer for the task. Operational expenses, including study materials, are partially funded by business organizations in the prefecture, a rare example of the public and private sectors banding together to teach Japanese to foreign-born children.
The NGK Insulators dormitory (left) and study materials stored in the room set aside for the class. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
Improved Study Environment
The Tōkai region centered on Aichi is a manufacturing heartland; for manufacturers, workers from abroad are a precious labor resource. The people come to Japan on work visas, many of them settling in Japan with their families. Children in such families often cannot function well in Japanese, though, which hampers their classroom participation.
A 2023 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology survey estimated that around 58,000 foreign-national schoolchildren required Japanese language instruction. Nearly 12,000 of those children lived in Aichi Prefecture, the largest number nationwide. Excluding Japanese classes taught at universities and other educational institutions, there are some 2,000 classes teaching Japanese as a foreign language throughout the country. These classes are often held in rented public halls and private facilities. Venues can be hard to come by, and study materials need to be shifted from place to place.
Hirasaka Reiko originally operated a private calligraphy school in Komaki, where she also taught foreign children Japanese writing. Word spread that she was a caring, attentive teacher. An increasing number of foreign children began attending her school, and 27 years ago, she switched to running a Japanese language school, which she set up in a room at her husband’s company. But the room was cramped, and she had difficulty attracting teachers. She is very happy with the premises offered by NGK Insulators, saying, “We have six times more space now. Employees are kind enough to volunteer as tutors, and the classroom environment is more conducive to studying. We can also store teaching materials in the room, so it’s perfect for us.”
Hirasaka Reiko leads the Ishiki Cosmos Support Learning Center. In addition to the class at the NGK Insulators facility, the Center offers daytime weekday learning support for foreign 12- to 15-year-olds not currently attending school. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
Numbers Provide Impetus
Aichi Prefecture has offered Japanese classes since 2008 in cooperation with the private sector. Three business associations—the Aichi Employers’ Association, the Central Japan Economic Federation, and the Federation of Aichi Prefecture Chamber of Commerce and Industry—worked with the prefecture to set up a fund, started 18 years ago, to provide financial backing for Japanese instruction.
Over that time, however, the number of children needing to learn Japanese continued to grow as more non-Japanese workers flocked to the Tōkai region. Iwahara Akihiko, director general of the Aichi Employers’ Association, recalls his shock on learning that, according to a 2021 Education Ministry survey, close to 11,000 schoolchildren in the prefecture, the largest number in the country, were in need of Japanese instruction. Although Tokyo has the largest number of non-Japanese workers overall, Aichi Prefecture has more children needing to build up Japanese language skills. “That figure made it evident that Aichi’s environment for teaching Japanese was not keeping up with the increase in foreign residents,” he said.
Iwahara Akihiko of the Aichi Employers’ Association stresses the need to improve foreign schoolchildren’s access to Japanese language instruction. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
Discussions among prefectural officials and business leaders on how to craft a more effective system began in 2022. Issues raised included insufficient support for Japanese classes for foreign children, the aging Japanese tutor population, the lack of volunteers, and the difficulty of keeping classes going.
In addition to ongoing financial support for the program, they decided that participating companies would offer space and personnel for Japanese classes and set up a program to train volunteer tutors. In addition to local government and business groups, universities and NPOs were also urged to participate.
Corporations Step Up
The first company to offer direct support was NGK Insulators, which had been considering doing so for some time. Cosmos Support was selected out of several possible alternatives in Komaki to run the class.
Moriwaki Takahiro, group manager for social contributions in the General Affairs Department at NGK Insulators, explains the company’s decision. “Our group companies employ around 500 short-term foreign workers. We were exploring possible ways of supporting their families, and began offering support to their children on a trial basis. We hoped that by helping the children improve their Japanese language ability, they might grow up to work in Japan some day or serve as grassroots ambassadors between Japan and their native countries. Language support for the children spans three phases: Japanese for basic communication, everyday Japanese, and school-curriculum-centered Japanese. We believe it’s worthwhile getting children up to speed in Japanese so that they can keep up with their studies, to pass entrance exams or find jobs in the future. We chose Cosmos Support as our partner because we see value in teaching curriculum-centered Japanese.”
“We had been considering supporting foreign children’s education since 2019,” says Moriwaki Takahiro of NGK Insulators. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
NGK Insulators began a Japanese-language classroom in an employee recreational facility in the city of Handa, where it has a branch office, in November 2023. Other major manufacturers in the prefecture are considering similar alternatives as well.
A display of photos of children studying and taking part in classroom events. (© Tanaka Keitarō)
Finding New Helpers
Efforts are also underway to boost the number of teachers of Japanese. Aichi Prefecture began operating a unique service for matching volunteers with opportunities in 2022. Volunteers recruited from participating companies are taught the basics for teaching Japanese as a foreign language and interview with classroom operators seeking volunteers.
These match-up events have been held five times since 2022, attracting 188 prospective volunteers from 29 companies and representatives of 37 classrooms seeking teachers. Iwahara, of the Aichi Employers’ Association, remarks: “Many new volunteers are women. Ranging broadly in age, some of them are volunteering to repay the kindness they were shown when they lived abroad with their husbands or parents during overseas job postings.” Plans are also in the works to broaden recruitment of volunteers among NPOs and universities.
A survey among match-up event participants revealed that 70% of respondents had begun volunteering to teach Japanese or were planning to do so after taking part in such an event. “This kind of event is beginning to bring results, so our three years of work are bearing fruit,” says Iwahara.
Issues are being identified and resolved step by step. A new environment is emerging in the region, where businesses employing foreign workers support Japanese education for foreign children. While the initiatives led by Aichi Prefecture are still a work in progress, its forward-thinking model for bolstering foreign children’s Japanese language skills is attracting attention.
(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: A Japanese class at an NGK Insulators facility in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture. © Tanaka Keitarō.)
AloJapan.com