Starting the 2026-27 school year, MVHS will no longer be offering Japanese 3 due to the rapid decline in enrollment. In April 2023, the district announced that the Japanese program at MVHS would be phased out starting from the 2024-25 school year and fully cut by the end of the 2028-29 school year.
Japanese 3, 4 and AP teacher Chiaki Vanasupa said she raised concerns to district officials through a petition last year in hopes of collecting enough signatures to retain the program.
“The decision to move the petition efforts to FUHSD has already been made,” Vanasupa said in Japanese. “We went to negotiate and made multiple efforts, but even with the consulate’s cooperation, it was to no avail. We were told to resolve the problem outside of the district when we wanted to preserve the Japanese programs and the community overall.”
Although FUHSD has “examined many strategies to continue offering as many course options as possible,” declining enrollment has made it difficult to keep Japanese at MVHS. While teachers and representatives made attempts to negotiate with the district, senior Minahil Kizilbash, who took Japanese all four years since her freshman year, felt that students were excluded from the decision-making process. Having dedicated much of her time to picking up the language and culture, Kizilbash worried that students’ voices were not directly considered in conversations that affected their education.
“I don’t think students were given a voice at all,” Kizilbash said. “I do not recall being asked how we felt on Japanese being taken down, and it was more like a decision created by the main board. I wish they had asked us, because I feel like we’re the ones who are in the class. We have the experience of knowing how the class is, and so we could have provided valuable responses or explanations on why or why not Japanese classes should be offered.”
Other students, like VP of the Japanese club and President of the Japanese National Honor Society, senior Sophia Yamada, echo this statement, bringing up other alternative solutions that could have been explored before removing the language from course offerings.
“I personally feel like they could just bring one more teacher,” Yamada said. “It’s disappointing for them to just remove one language from the course offering when other languages still have multiple teachers, and Japanese only has one teacher. And in terms of declining enrollment, if we have one joint class, it could still function. And if we sustain it, definitely one day, people will join it. It’s not like there are only two or three people wanting to enroll. There’s a full class still functioning.”
Kizilbash also mentions the significant number of Japanese students enrolling in MVHS and has seen a lot more people interested in the language, recognizing several underclassmen who are knowledgeable about the culture and language itself. Beyond the logistical issue of course availability, Kizilbash also worries that removing Japanese courses could have broader impacts on the school community.
“If the language is not offered to the students anymore, they could feel unrepresented,” Kizilbash said. “Now, I’m assuming that the participation in Japanese-related clubs such as the Japanese National Honor Society might decrease. I feel like that could also really impact students who are specifically Japanese as well, because they feel like they don’t really have other peers with whom they can connect.”
Yamada emphasizes the noticeable decline in enrollment in both Japanese clubs. Yamada agrees with Kizilbash and emphasizes that, in the future, the club officers will have to work even harder to recruit members.
“Both Japanese clubs in terms of enrollment decreased significantly,” Yamada said. “Especially for the enrollment in the Japanese Honor Society, it’s usually the Japanese native speakers participating and not for the rest of the people who are genuinely interested in Japanese culture. When I was a freshman, we had 20 to 30 people coming, but now we only get five or six at a good meeting.”
Although enrollment numbers and club participation have decreased within Japanese-related clubs and classes, both Vanasupa and Kizilbash emphasize the value of the teaching and learning experience in the Japanese program, reinforcing its importance to students currently enrolled and those planning to take the course next year.
“Being in the Japanese classes for the past four years has really given me an understanding of the Japanese culture and the language,” Kizilbash said. “It’s really beautiful, and I really wish it would be continuously offered beyond when I’m graduating, because it’s a language and culture that other people should acknowledge. It’s been great being in Japanese the past four years, where I’ve gotten to see the program grow and dive into deeper topics.”
Vanasupa also emphasizes the advantage of learning another language, such as Japanese, to obtain a State Seal of Biliteracy, a program that “recognizes high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing one or more languages in addition to English.” Beyond the gold seal mark, Vanasupa stresses the importance of being able to have fun in Japanese to deepen the understanding of Japanese culture.
“Since there is only Japanese 4 and AP left, we are open to anyone who is truly interested in learning Japanese,” Vanasupa said in Japanese. “That’s what I intend to do. It will be a bit difficult to not know the basics, such as writing Hiragana and Katakana, but if you are truly interested in Japanese and its culture, then please come along. So I would like to ask everyone to please reach out to us, invite your friends and spread the word to take Japanese.”
AloJapan.com