Re: Gaijin students play hooky

[Gaisaradatsuraku!]

Truancy among foreign students in Japan not being addressed

The government has failed to address the problem of many non-Japanese children not going to school in Japan due to bullying and discrimination despite calls by a U.N. child rights panel, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said Wednesday.

As one of the few available statistics on truancy among non-Japanese children, the group cited a 1999 survey by a city in Aichi Prefecture that found 85 of the 187 registered foreign residents of junior high school age, or 45.5%, were not in school.

Should serve as a wake up call for those foreigners out there who are living in a dream world in which discrimination is less prevalent in Japan. Not for your kids it isn't.

[stuckinkysuhu]

I went to a Japanese high school for a while (now I am in a Japanese university). And I can tell you that discrimination/teasing of foreign students is a reality. But it isn't quite what you would think. I don't speak for elementary school, because I have no experience. But for high school I have seen foreign students get bullied exactly like Japanese students. Also, the foreign students likely to be bullied in Japan seem to be likely to be bullied in their home countries as well.

On the other hand, there are more outgoing or "cool" foreign students who have become in a lot of cases the leaders of their peer groups. All of this is said with the presumption that the foreigners can speak Japanese at an OK level. Where there is a language barrier it is a lot harder for foreign and domestic students to get along and maybe we can't blame it entirely on Japanese culture.