Photo/Illutration Upadhyay Ukesh delivers a speech on Oct. 9 in the Osaka Prefectural Education Center in Osaka’s Sumiyoshi Ward. (Takuya Asakura)

When Upadhyay Ukesh came to Japan at age 14 from Nepal, he could not understand Japanese, and he worked without going to school.

Now 21, Ukesh is attending a part-time course at the Osaka Prefecture-run Mikunigaoka High School.

The young Nepalese hopes to build bridges between foreigners and Japanese through his words.

At a contest held in Tokyo on Nov. 20 for students at part-time or correspondence high schools nationwide to present their speeches, Ukesh represented Osaka Prefecture.

He delivered a speech about his experiences in Japan, his dream and the only thing he is unsatisfied with regarding life in Japan.

LONGING FOR SCHOOL

Ukesh came to Japan because his father was working at a restaurant in the country.

His age meant he should have enrolled in junior high school under Japan’s education system. Though Ukesh longed to take classes while wearing a uniform, he said, his dream did not come true.

Instead, Ukesh helped with his father’s work while staying at different relatives’ homes.

At 16, he started working part time at a hotel in Osaka. He primarily worked cleaning guest rooms and making up the beds. He currently provides guidance to new employees as well.

Ukesh learned about a junior high school night program from a Nepalese colleague and quickly decided to try it. He finished the program in a year and then began taking part-time classes at a high school.

“Going to school has allowed me to learn many things I previously did not know,” said Ukesh.

Teachers in Japan offer him lessons on subject matter along with a variety of knowledge essential for living in Japan.

“Schools provide 100-percent reliability and safety, though I am unable to explain their merits well in Japanese,” he said.

Ukesh is enjoying a fulfilling life, busy with working, studying and working out at a gym for fun. He said he has never been bullied or discriminated against because of his race at school or the workplace.

RACIAL PROFILING

His sole complaint, however, involves the way Japanese police officers often question him on the streets despite him having done nothing illegal.

Ukesh once was body-searched by two to three officers while he had both hands raised above his head on his way to a night class for junior high school following work. This was near a train station, and many passers-by stared at him.

He had not been accustomed to being questioned by police at that time, and he did not know what to say. He said the experience shook him.

“I can never forget that,” Ukesh said. “Police questioning was more polite on other occasions, at least.”

Such a nuisance occasionally happens to him multiple times a month. He has been questioned by police on dozens of occasions so far.

Ukesh afterward heard from a high school teacher that police and other organizations open investigations based on their prejudices connected to race and skin color in a practice called racial profiling, which is emerging as a problem in and outside Japan.

According to findings of a questionnaire survey released by the Tokyo Bar Association in September, 63 percent of 2,000 people with foreign roots said they had been questioned by police in the past five years.

Ukesh’s speech refers to his encounter with police.

As he is to graduate next spring, Ukesh is developing a documentary film about his life in Japan as a foreigner.

He hopes the film will convey the idea that better communication may prompt more Japanese who hesitate to socialize with individuals from outside the nation to realize they are all human.

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