Twenty years have passed since Japanese workers first came to Japan, but last year, due to the impact of the global economic crisis at the end of 2008, about 15% of Brazilians (more than 45,000 people) and 4% of Peruvians (more than 2,250 people) residing in Japan returned to their home countries. Nevertheless, there are still about 267,456 of the former and 57,464 of the latter living in Japan, and the tendency for Japanese workers to settle there is high. In addition, about 3,500 people are born in Japan with Brazilian nationality each year, while the number of Peruvian nationals has remained at around 780 for the past few years. Among children aged 5 to 14, which corresponds to compulsory education age, there are about 33,000 Brazilians and 7,800 ^Peruvians1 .

When Japan first began accepting Japanese workers, it was thought that Japanese people would be able to adapt to Japanese society without much problem, as they can speak Japanese, are highly educated and smart in South America, and naturally parents are very educated when it comes to their children. However, as the number of Japanese workers increased, attention began to be paid to the issue of Brazilian children not attending school. Unlike the former, Peruvian children complete compulsory education, but perhaps because many of them finish compulsory education with low academic ability, there are many cases where they have difficulty going on to high school or university. It has also been pointed out that even if they do enter high school, the graduation rate is low.

Behind these circumstances are issues such as unstable employment patterns of parents and the accompanying mobility (including not only internal mobility due to placement, but also mobility where the parents return to their home country for several years), and sometimes a low awareness of education among parents and various problems within the family (divorce, separation, cohabitation, single parenthood (unmarried mothers, etc.)) are also major factors. In recent years, there has been an increase in underage cohabitation, pregnancy, and childbirth within the community, and although these cases are not often made public, there has been an increase in consultations from parents.

Japanese people from South America bring with them many of the good things about their home countries, but it is also true that they also carry with them some of the less good elements from their home countries.

According to the Social Indicators Statistics for Latin America from 2000 to 2005, the highest cohabitation rate was in Peru at 47.4%, followed by 82.6% for those aged 15 to 24 and 55.6% for those aged 25 to 34. In Brazil and Argentina, the average was in the 30% range, but it was as high as 60% for younger generations. Looking at the 2000 statistics on births outside of marriage, most countries exceeded 50% ² .

There are many areas in South America where not all primary school children graduate.

Regarding the educational situation in Latin America, think tanks such as CEPAL (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) and SITEAL (UNESCO's Latin American Educational Research System) have compiled reports, which show that it was only in the 1990s that Argentina recorded an elementary school enrollment rate (not the completion/graduation rate) of 90%. Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, etc. did not achieve this until 2005. As for the lower secondary education course (equivalent to junior high school in Japan), the target of a 50% enrollment rate was achieved in 1985 in Chile, in 1995 in Argentina and Peru, and in 2005 in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Panama, etc. According to the same reports, as of 2005, only Chile and Peru had achieved a secondary education completion/graduation rate of 70%, while Argentina was in the 60% range, and Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, etc. were still only in the 50% range. The Central American countries of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras are in a serious situation, with rates below 30%.

Unlike Japan, there is no perfect attendance rate even in compulsory education, and the rates of absenteeism, non-attendance, voluntary dropout, and repeating (failure) are still high, and it has been pointed out that in some countries and regions, they are actually getting worse. In addition, problems with the infrastructure of educational facilities, the quality and treatment of teachers, and effective budget allocation are also major issues.

According to SITEAL survey data from 2000 to 2007, the average illiteracy rate among adolescents (aged 12 to 17) across Latin America is 3 percent, but ranges from 10 percent in some countries and 19 percent in rural areas, to as high as 20 percent in the Amazonia region of Brazil and 23 percent in rural areas of Alagoas and Acre states.

The 2005 SITEAL report details the reasons why children and students voluntarily drop out of school, stating that 34.5% left school due to family or financial problems, 25.2% to get a job, 10.3% because they were not interested in or did not perform well in their studies, and 8.6% because they needed to help with household chores or became pregnant. By age group, 30.8% of those aged 20-24 left school for work reasons, almost double the proportion of those aged 15-19. The proportion of women (37.2%) who cited financial reasons was higher than men (31.8%), and data also shows that this proportion is higher among young people in rural areas than in urban areas3 ^.

On the other hand, the CEPAL report (eight countries, 1999 survey, 15-19 years old, divided by gender) also makes a similar point. The dropout rate for young people is 23% in urban middle class, 37% in the poor, and 55% in rural areas. These data also vary greatly depending on family circumstances, such as whether the head of the household is employed, the mother's highest level of education, and whether the mother is unmarried and lives with her parents or is a single mother earning a living. In addition, if the mother has less than five years of education, the dropout rate for children is 41% in urban areas and 55% in rural areas. For those with five or more years of education, the dropout rate is 15% and 34%, ^{respectively4} .

Also, if we look at the education statistics for Peru and Brazil individually, the following situation becomes apparent.

In some parts of the Sierra region of Peru, the chronic malnutrition rate among infants and young children is over 50%, and in some areas, the infant mortality rate is 70/1000 or 25/1000. Many mothers do not even know that kindergartens are part of the educational facilities and the first stage of elementary school. In addition, school infrastructure in poor areas is poor, and 23% of educational facilities do not even have drinking water.

Among adolescents aged 12 to 16, equivalent to junior high school students, 34.5% are not attending school, and 28.6% of children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 are working. The illiteracy rate is 8.1%, with approximately 1.5 million people in this state, and there is a mismatch in learning age and a high rate of repeating classes.

According to a 2008 national academic achievement assessment in Peru, the achievement rate of second graders in reading comprehension was 16.9% and 9.4% in mathematics. Looking more closely, more than 90% of second and sixth graders in elementary school did not reach the optimal level of mathematics, and the same percentage did not acquire the necessary reading comprehension. In addition, 94% of students in the third year of junior high school and 97.1% of students in the fifth year of junior high school (equivalent to the second year of high school) had very low ability to think after reading comprehension and mathematics. (*The achievement rate of learning goals is the level that has reached the standards set by the Ministry of Education of Peru, and the optimal educational background is the most desirable level.) Furthermore, the gap between rural and urban schools, and between public and private schools is two to three times. To correct this, it is considered urgent to improve the level of teachers in rural areas and public schools, and the Ministry of Education of Peru has been actively implementing teacher training projects in recent ^years5 .

Peru's education situation in table (from a report by the Peruvian Ministry of Education)

Regarding education in Brazil, UNESCO's 2008 statistics show that the repeat rate in primary education is 19% and the non-enrollment rate is 4%. In addition, the enrollment rate in higher education is 25%, which is quite low in South America. On the other hand, a survey published by UNICEF in 2009 pointed out the high dropout rate in the upper secondary education, which is said to be caused by academic problems in primary education and the high dropout rate. It introduced the fact that only 2.47 million of 4.6 million primary school children graduate, meaning that 46.3% drop out from the compulsory education stage. The highest number of children drop out in the fourth grade of elementary school, and the repeat rate is surprisingly high even after advancing. However, in the central and eastern part of the country, such as Rio and Sao Paulo states, about 70% graduate from elementary school, while in Amazonia the rate is low at 28% and in Pará state it is 22.3%.

In secondary and high school (also known as the preparatory stage for university), the national average completion rate is 50.9%, compared to 59.7% in the Central-East and 44.5% in Rio de Janeiro. Even in the economically prosperous Central-East region, the completion rate is 44.8%. 3.65 million students are enrolled in secondary education institutions annually, but only 1.85 million graduate. Of the 21 million boys aged 12 to 17, 59% complete their education and only 40% complete high school. There are many reasons for dropping out, but poverty, work (including domestic work), pregnancy and childbirth are common (according to 2003 statistics, 340,000 girls in this age group were mothers) ⁶ .

So, does this mean that the children of Japanese Latinos in Japan are a direct reflection of these realities? However, it cannot be said that the workers who come to Japan are unrelated to this reality, and it can be assumed that they are influenced to some extent by these structural problems. It is impossible to talk about the educational issues of the children of Japanese workers without knowing the educational and social conditions in South America.

It is true that there are high-quality educational facilities in Lima, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, etc., and when you look at the consciousness and attitude of university students, you will find that in South America you have to study and compete many times more, and work much harder to graduate than you would at an average university in Japan. To get into a good university in South America, just like in Japan, you have to get good grades at least from junior high school, and in some cases you have to go to a cram school to prepare for the entrance exams. Even if you are able to enter the university of your choice, only 15% to 20% of students are able to graduate from national universities, and 30% to 40% of students from private universities, depending on the department.

University of Sao Paulo Faculty of Law

In South American countries, compulsory education is clearly stated in the constitution and education-related laws as a parent's right and obligation, and must be carried out as a citizen's duty or the state's responsibility. However, the reality is that budgetary restrictions and policy mismatches have led to the situation described above. Nevertheless, it is assessed that various educational issues, including social indicators, have improved considerably in recent years along with economic growth. A few days ago, Brazilian media reported that six Brazilian universities were ranked within the top 100 of the world's 500 universities.

The disparities in South America are not only economic and social, but are also extreme in terms of education. If the family environment is good, the completion rates for secondary and higher education are almost the same as in Japan, but if not, they will end up in the figures above. Naturally, a certain percentage of the Japanese workers who came to Japan decided to work and live here in order to escape such situations. However, they were not able to make up for what they could not get in their home countries, and although they worked hard and started families, it can be said that they were hesitant and confused about their attitudes towards education and the educational policies they should adopt for their children. I think that this is manifesting itself as problems with the education of their children.

Notes:
1. Estimates based on immigration statistics, "Statistics on Foreign Residents" 2009, Immigration Bureau Association, 2009
2. CEPAL: Families have become more diverse in the region. “Information: Latinoamerican families in transformation”. Social Politiques Series No. 147, 30 October 2009
3. SITEAL Reporte - http://www.siteal.iipe-oei.org/
4. http://www.cepal.org/
Latin American social panorama 2009
The hour of the igualdad: breaks by cerrar, walks by april. 2010.06
5. http://escale.minedu.gob.pe/escale/inicio.do?pagina=283 Education Statistics of Peru
http://www.minedu.gob.pe/ Peruvian Ministry of Education website
http://surnoticias.com/index.php/educacion/superior-/3617-mas-de-177-mil-maestros-seran-capacitados
In response to the results of a qualification examination for public primary and secondary school teachers held around 2006, in which most applicants failed, the Ministry of Education conducted training for 170,000 teachers between 2007 and the end of 2010.
6. http://www.unicef.org/brazil/pt/aprova_final.pdf UNICEF Report 2006 Survey
http://www.unicef.org/brazil/pt/activities_9381.htm
http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.phpBrazilian Ministry of Education
http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=208&Itemid=267Brazilian Education Statistics

© 2010 Alberto J. Matsumoto