Kikokushijo
Encyclopedia
and are Japanese-language
terms referring to the children of Japanese expatriate
s who take part of their education outside of Japan
. The former term is used to refer to children who have returned to Japan, while the latter refers to such children while they are still overseas. They are referred to in English variously as "sojourn children" or "returnees" The term "third culture kids" has also been used, but not without reservations. As of 2002, roughly 10,000 children of Japanese expatriates return to Japan every year, with a total of roughly 50,000 residing overseas at any one time, a number that had remained roughly constant during the previous decade after rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Only 40% attend Japanese schools while living overseas.
The Ministry of Education recognised as early as 1966 that Japan's school system faced challenges in the education and re-integration of children who had returned from overseas. Under the idea of nihonjinron
, which stressed the alleged uniqueness of Japanese society, kikokushijo began to be characterised in the 1970s as problem children who needed assistance in readjusting to Japanese society; they were thought to be too Westernised and individualistic. Ironically, much of the image of kikokushijo as "educational orphans" in need of "rescue" came from the parents of such children themselves. During the 1980s, however, kikokushijo came to be seen as a new elite rather than as problems; their language and cultural skills gained respect as valuable tools for the internationalisation of Japan. As of 1997, over 300 universities offered relaxed admissions criteria for kikokushijo, a system which had been attacked as preferential treatment and reverse discrimination. They are often misperceived as fluent speakers of English
, though many in fact resided in non-Anglophone countries.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
terms referring to the children of Japanese expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
s who take part of their education outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The former term is used to refer to children who have returned to Japan, while the latter refers to such children while they are still overseas. They are referred to in English variously as "sojourn children" or "returnees" The term "third culture kids" has also been used, but not without reservations. As of 2002, roughly 10,000 children of Japanese expatriates return to Japan every year, with a total of roughly 50,000 residing overseas at any one time, a number that had remained roughly constant during the previous decade after rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Only 40% attend Japanese schools while living overseas.
The Ministry of Education recognised as early as 1966 that Japan's school system faced challenges in the education and re-integration of children who had returned from overseas. Under the idea of nihonjinron
Nihonjinron
The term literally means theories/discussions about the Japanese. The term refers to a genre of texts that focuses on issues of Japanese national and cultural identity. The literature is vast, ranging over such varied fields as sociology, psychology, history, linguistics, philosophy, and even...
, which stressed the alleged uniqueness of Japanese society, kikokushijo began to be characterised in the 1970s as problem children who needed assistance in readjusting to Japanese society; they were thought to be too Westernised and individualistic. Ironically, much of the image of kikokushijo as "educational orphans" in need of "rescue" came from the parents of such children themselves. During the 1980s, however, kikokushijo came to be seen as a new elite rather than as problems; their language and cultural skills gained respect as valuable tools for the internationalisation of Japan. As of 1997, over 300 universities offered relaxed admissions criteria for kikokushijo, a system which had been attacked as preferential treatment and reverse discrimination. They are often misperceived as fluent speakers of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, though many in fact resided in non-Anglophone countries.