The Issue
Introduction
"The educational system in Japan has traditionally been focused on the 'one nation, one language' ideology. This has led to the marginalization of indigenous and immigrant languages. As a consequence, heritage speakers are dealing with the loss of their heritage languages" (Becski, 2021). In short, there is a distinct lack of inclusion for heritage languages and cultures; this website will focus more towards its reflection in Japanese education.
Before delving further into the topic throughout this site, I'd like to define a few things first. These are as follows:
Heritage Speaker
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"A heritage speaker is someone who grows up with a certain family language in the home which is different from the dominant language in the country" (Kagan, 2008).
Nikkei/Nikkeijin
日系/日系人
Emigrants and their descendants of Japanese ancestry. Many of these individuals are of mixed ethnicities. In this context, these individuals generally migrated back to Japan and were enrolled in the Japanese education system.
Ainu
アイヌ
The Ainu people are one of the indigenous groups of Japan, mainly originating from the island of Hokkaido to the north. The assimilation policies by the Japanese government since the Meiji era has dwindled the cultural footprint of this proud group.
Nihonjinron
日本人論
A genre of texts/social theory that describe a uniform Japanese national and cultural identity. The notions therein lead to "the widely accepted idea that Japan is a homogenous country" (Yamamoto, 2015).
A Bit of Background
The history of neglect towards heritage and minority groups in Japan is complex; I certainly cannot do the topic justice with this website alone. I can, however, bring to light some of the broader issues surrounding certain heritage groups in higher education. These groups include, but aren't limited to, the indigenous Ainu and Okinawan (Ryukyuan) peoples, Nikkeijin, immigrant groups, and those of mixed--usually half--Japanese ethnicity (in Japanese, hafu). These groups experience pressure to assimilate into a unique monocultural identity in line with the "standard Japanese" person, influenced by Nihonjinron ideas. Also further adding to this dilemma are the poor ethnic diversity rates of Japan as a whole. Regarding this in relation to formal education, a phrase of the following article puts it thus:
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Even though the immigrant population does not represent a large percentage of the Japanese society (about 2.93 percent of the population by 2019 according to Statistics Bureau Japan), they belong there, and they require an appropriate and meaningful education. (Becski, 2021)
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This percentage doesn't include those of the native Ainu or Okinawan peoples, because, to the Japanese government, they are the same as the other Japanese citizens, being from "Japanese" land. Many are unclear about what constitutes a "Japanese person" in society, and Japan is, in my humble opinion, lagging behind in addressing key social issues regarding heritage groups in the country. I think this is mainly due to a lack of awareness: "...because they do believe in that there is only one race and culture which everyone shares in the country, there is a confusion between 'nation' and 'race or ethnicity'" (Yamamoto, 2015).
While there have been scattered initiatives to increase awareness of heritage languages and cultures in education, these have been few and far between. The "achievements of these movements will continue to weaken because there is insufficient awareness and true understanding of the multicultural reality of Japan and the importance and benefits of maintaining it" (Becski, 2021). And so, in order to address the lack of awareness and further loss of language and culture, a potential framework was implemented as a one-semester project at Kanda University of International Studies, as detailed in "The Program."