Photo/Illutration Social studies textbooks for early elementary school students include illustrations that represent diversity through different skin and hair colors. (Takuya Asakura)

An elementary school second-grader in Kanagawa Prefecture told her father one morning, "I don't want to go to school anymore."

Mio explained that she had been teased for having darker skin.

Her father, Kinota Braithwaite, a Canadian teacher, contacted the school. The principal quickly responded and allowed him to visit the classroom to address the students.

“I think my daughter’s homeroom teacher was good, but didn’t know how to handle racial discrimination,” Braithwaite said.

In the classroom, Braithwaite spoke about the history of black people in Canada.

After the class, the boy who had teased Mio approached Braithwaite and apologized in English as his mother had taught him.

“Please come to the school again anytime,” the boy said.

“Japan has long been a homogeneous society, and I don’t intend to change its culture,” Braithwaite said. “I just don’t want anyone to be hurt because they are different―that’s all.”

Although he managed to help his daughter, Braithwaite was not satisfied with stopping there. He wanted to eliminate bullying throughout Japan.

In 2021, he published a children’s book titled “Mio the Beautiful,” based on his daughter’s experiences. It conveys the message that “everyone is different, and everyone is beautiful.”

Braithwaite travels across Japan, reading the book in schools and giving lectures to aspiring teachers.

A survey released in July by Lawrence Yoshitaka Shimoji, a visiting scholar at the University of California, and other researchers found that 68 percent of 448 respondents in Japan with mixed ethnic or racial backgrounds had experienced bullying or discrimination.

NEVER BEEN TAUGHT

Teachers are grappling with how to teach children to respect diversity from an early age.

The principal of a child care facility in a district of the Tokyo metropolitan area, where many foreign residents live, noted that children who grow up with peers from diverse backgrounds tend to naturally accept those differences.

However, around age 5, children of diverse backgrounds may begin to notice these differences between themselves and others, according to the principal.

“Children are very honest, so it’s important to teach them how to view and think about these differences from this age,” the principal said. “But neither I nor the younger teachers were taught this in school, so we don’t know the best way to approach it.”

Ayano Yamada, a lecturer at Ritsumeikan University who taught elementary school for many years, said that the education ministry’s curriculum guidelines for elementary school social studies includes a statement encouraging students to interact with diverse people.

However, there is no mention of children with foreign backgrounds.

Social studies textbooks include illustrations of children with darker skin, blond hair and blue eyes, but Yamada said that these could be perceived as stereotypes.

Without accompanying explanations, she said, “It’s up to the teachers’ awareness and skill to decide what to convey to children about these illustrations.”

The education ministry has recently started focusing more on providing Japanese language instruction for children who need it.

However, Yamada said, “What we teach students in the majority about their peers with diverse backgrounds is also important, but this issue is not widely recognized.”

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