Osaka Prefecture leads the nation in working to help students of foreign descent retain their bicultural identity by offering classes in a language their parents speak.

The endeavor comes as it is widely recognized in academia that learning in the language of their parents benefits students not just in establishing their identity, but also in enhancing their ability to think and strengthening their Japanese language proficiency.

In December, three students of Filipino ancestry took a class led by a Filipino teacher in Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines, at public-supported Fusekita High School in Higashi-Osaka in the prefecture.

The students, who were in their third year, took turns reading aloud from a book in Tagalog. When they made a mistake, the teacher corrected them.

The students said they use Tagalog when they talk, but reading a book written in Tagalog does not come easily to them partly because it contains old expressions.

Jochelle Ramos, one of the students, came to Japan when she was a fifth-grader.

She speaks in Tagalog with her mother but in Japanese with her brothers.

“I’m gradually losing my grip on Tagalog,” she lamented.

One of the students in the class who came to Japan when he was in his second year of junior high school, teased her, saying, “I don’t understand what you’re saying sometimes.”

In fiscal 2001, Osaka Prefecture introduced a system where language classes would be offered during the regular curriculum at some of its public high schools accepting foreign students with limited Japanese skills.

There are currently eight such schools participating in the program.

There, students with bicultural backgrounds take two classes of Japanese and in their native language every week.

A traditional home to ethnic Koreans, Osaka Prefecture has seen numerous extracurricular activities that teach Korean and the country’s culture to children of that ancestry.

It was aimed at instilling a sense of self-esteem and self-worth among ethnic Korean children as they have often been the target of discrimination and prejudice in Japanese society.

The prefecture then saw an influx of people arriving from other parts of Asia and elsewhere from the 1980s onward.

There was a time that school officials instructed children of diverse ethnic backgrounds to speak Japanese as much as possible even at home.

Their intention was that in doing so, the children would quickly assimilate into their host community and society.

But one essay written by an elementary schoolboy in the 1990s led teachers to question whether their emphasis on Japanese language proficiency was appropriate.

In the essay, a third-grader with Chinese parents wrote about a phone call his family received from his grandmother, who lives in China.

It was the first time for the boy to get a phone call from his grandmother after his family came to live in Japan.

The student wrote that his parents and older brother happily talked with her.

When he was handed the phone, however, he waved his hand to pass, saying, “Because I don’t understand Chinese.”

The boy went on to say that when he looked at his parents, they both had tears in their eyes.

“I thought that my parents cried because I forgot Chinese, but it also occurred to me that they cried because they were delighted to talk with my grandmother,” he said. “I wish I could have talked with her.”

His essay, which is well known among teachers in the prefecture even today, made the teachers at the time realize that their approach might have made children unable to communicate with their relatives who do not speak Japanese.

They now share the view that giving lessons in the language of their ancestry is also important.

In 2021, the Central Council for Education, an advisory panel to the education minister, acknowledged the need for giving more language support to children of foreign descent so that they can learn more about their heritage.

But the central government has yet to lay out any specific programs for it.

Osaka Prefecture is rare in terms of addressing the issue by offering language classes as part of the regular curriculum.

Most efforts elsewhere in the country occur after school with the help of volunteers.

Kimi Yamoto, associate professor of foreign language education at Osaka University, noted that many education officials prioritize lessons on Japanese language and culture while paying little attention to foreign children’s native languages.

“More opportunities should be made available to allow them to appreciate the language and culture of their ancestral countries,” she said.

She added that a shortage of personnel who can assist in their mother tongue must also be resolved.

(This article was written by Takuya Asakura and Chika Yamamoto.)