Education access and participation in Japan

A 2015 study confirmed and recognized the problem of low education aspiration among the surveyed youth in Japan with Filipino heritage.

When asked what they thought was most important for them, of 167 youth (ages 16-30) surveyed,  only 71 mentioned study while 71 mentioned work and earning (for themselves and/or their families) as most important. Many respondents mentioned that they did not want to proceed even with high school; instead, they desired to pursue factory and manufacturing work.

How to encourage the Filipino children in Japan, those with Filipino heritage, to complete their vocational or high school, and especially, how to encourage them to proceed to have a college education is one major education problem and challenge to hurdle.

There is also the need to check if there are other education problems that need to be examined to ensure quality education and a protective, nurturing educational context in Japan for foreign children and youth, including those with Filipino heritage.

 As education is crucial for the development of children as persons and members of society and the global community, and as education provides opportunities for better employment, better quality of life, and better participation in society, it is important to study and examine more closely if there are other education-related problems that discourage students from pursuing higher levels of education so that efforts can be exerted to inspire children and youth to aspire for higher educational achievement.

 Excluding the irregular Filipinos, there were 260,553 registered Filipinos in Japan in 2017. The Filipino children (ages 0-24) constituted about 20 percent of Filipinos in Japan.   Filipino children refer to those whose parents are both Filipino or those with mixed parentage (those born to a Filipino mother or father and to a foreign parent (Japanese or other nationalities). The Filipino children are also those born to a Filipino parent or parents with Japanese descent. These various types of Filipino children reflect the linked history of Japan and the Philippines, as well as the linked biographies of Filipinos, Japanese, and other nationalities in Japan.

One major difficulty in understanding the problems of Filipino children in Japanese schools is the absence of accessible statistics about foreign children, including Filipinos, enrolled in Japanese schools for various years and school levels throughout the prefectures.

Other education problems of the Filipino children in Japan include 1) Japanese language deficit; 2) bullying and prejudice; 3) confusion on the different school cultures and rules in the Philippines and Japan; and 4) difficulty of entering good high schools and universities due to language deficit, among others.

Family factors, such as residence status, financial capability to support school fees in private schools, parents’ lack of Japanese proficiency, among others, affect children’s access and participation in schools.

Systemic factors, such as the lack of uniform implementation of the Japanese official policy to admit at all school levels, all children regardless of age, residence status, nationality, race and class as well as the issue of unequal educational opportunities in school enrollment and academic attainment have been observed.

Support for early childhood education, school quality, and openness to cultural and religious diversity, legislation and key migration policies in the host country affect the status of migrants and their children.

Because the wide range of problems moves across the school-system link, there is no one easy or one “magic” solution that can be applied to resolve the multifaceted nature of the education problems experienced by Filipino and other foreign children.

Concerted, multi-sectoral, multidimensional efforts are necessary to address the present problems affecting Filipino and other foreign children’s education in Japan.