Utsunomiya University, in Tochigi, Japan, began research in 2004 on the situation of foreign children in that prefecture, with a large presence of migrants. Dr. Ana Sueyoshi* joined this study in 2006, who has closely followed the difficult insertion process of Peruvian children. We spoke with her during her visit to Lima in September 2009.

Professor Ana Sueyoshi gave a conference at the Peruvian Japanese Cultural Center, organized by the Language Department of the Peruvian Japanese Association, on the results of a survey carried out in 2008 regarding children who returned to Peru after having lived in Japan.

What are the objectives of the project?

The project was born in 2004 at the Faculty of International Studies – Department of Social Sciences of the University of Utsunomiya, in Tochigi, Japan, and its objective was to carry out a kind of exploratory study on the environment of foreign children in this prefecture, therefore that they began to visit schools to find out how many foreign children there were, what conditions they were in, if they really adapted to the Japanese educational system, if their performance was good or not, what level of Japanese they had.

In the second year it was decided to do a survey of children and parents of schools that host foreign children, and the results obtained were, in general terms, that the foreign child cannot have a good academic performance when he does not have a good command of the Japanese language. As simple and straightforward as that.

How do you rate the Japanese level of Peruvian children?

The problem exists when Brazilian and Peruvian children do not master the Japanese language. When they dominate it, I think there is no problem, but here comes another problem, which is the lack of identity of that child.

The child is not Japanese and he knows it, but he does not understand why he is not Japanese if he was born in Japan and lives in Japan and does not know anything about Peru, and they also tell him 'you are Peruvian'. Those problems come out later. The child loses a lot of security.

The students we have at the university, for example, are successful cases because they are at the university, although they do not speak Spanish. People believe that children can be bilingual, which is a lie; They handle one language well and the other completely unequal, they speak it, but never from a satisfactory academic point of view, and what draws our attention the most and we want there to be no more cases like that, is being semilingual, that is, not speaking well no language.

Is there parental pressure on the child regarding learning Japanese?

I think that the Nikkei community has always been characterized as a thriving community, seeking social advancement, economic advancement, and to achieve that it has always aimed at having a good education.

The idea I have is that people generally do not change their values. From that same perspective, many of the parents who migrated to Japan in the 90's did so because they could not pay for their children's schools and universities; It's like the most important thing in our family life is the education of our children and I traveled to Japan to be able to pay for it.

But I think that in the middle of the trip, being in Japan for a long time, being a marginalized group in Japanese society, people, as a social group, change their values. It is a hypothesis, I do not dare to affirm it. I believe that there is a change of values ​​in the Peruvian Nikkei who are now in Japan, in the sense that the value they give to the education of children is no longer as much as the value that all of us have in mind as part of this Nikkei community.

I think that for many of the Nikkei who are in Japan, the most important thing is the economic part. When I talked to some Nikkei they told me 'what is going to be done, my son will have to sacrifice himself'. My son will have to sacrifice himself! My response is 'you are sacrificing your child, your child cannot make a decision.'

You mentioned as success stories kids who have already adapted and speak Japanese very well. Do they no longer feel Peruvian at all?

They don't feel Peruvian.

And despite this, are they success stories?

Yes, placing ourselves in the academic sense, because we seek the social location of these children, we do not want them to continue being marginalized, neither by themselves nor by others.

I say successful because, for example, at our university, which is public, 95% of students have a job the next year after graduating. If we call that participating successfully in the Japanese system, I believe they are going to achieve it. However, those kids don't speak Spanish.

I think there is an identity crisis but – what I am going to say is suddenly very bad – I am not so worried about it, it is a problem that will arise later, but at least, I believe that all Peruvian boys that by decision of the parents they are in Japan, they have to have an opportunity to feel that they can earn a decent salary in a society, and then the identity I imagine will come later, as adults they will look for it, but at least that is my aim.

The project, as a general objective, goes further. The aim is to ensure that students do not lose the identity of their country, that the child is proud of the past that they bring with them. What we want is to integrate the child into Japanese society who comes with a multiculturalism that would be good for Japanese society. Looking at it more concretely, these children come knowing a little Spanish, speaking it, writing it, suddenly bad, but already with some Spanish, so as a human resource it is valuable, that is the vision that the project has, taking advantage of that human resource , integrate him well into Japanese society, make him useful and, obviously, for the child to develop within his abilities.

At what ages do you see the most problems?

I would say that it is very problematic when one moves from one continent to another when the child is 12 or 13 years old. At that age, moving from one language to another is a very serious thing, and it is also an age that has many insecurities, that needs friends. It is in that group that I have identified rejection towards parents. They tell me 'why are they moving me? I'm tired of being moved, I've told my parents to leave me anywhere, but let them leave me'. This group is the most affected.

How many Latin American students go to university?

The percentage in the prefecture is very low. The Japanese system is very different from the Peruvian educational system, primary and secondary school are very easy, there is no repetition of a course or year. Getting to Chuugakkoo, where you have to take the first exam, is already a first obstacle, but the Koukou is decisive, because the exam there is very difficult. That's where the moment of truth comes.

Peruvian parents have to realize that the Japanese educational system is very different from the Peruvian one, and if they do not keep a permanent eye on their children's education, they will not have successful cases: the child graduates, goes to upper secondary school and Then finish and go to university. If they do not pay attention to the education of their children, they will have a vicious cycle of children working in factories again, not improving themselves academically or professionally.

What results does the survey you conducted show?

Casuistically there are different patterns that can be observed. In successful cases, the parents are always very interested in the child's education and, for example, decided not to stay in Japan because the child did not adapt to a Japanese school; So they decided to return with him, that is, the child was the reason for returning. In many other cases they say 'I'm sorry, if you don't adapt we'll send you to grandma, and I need to continue working in Japan'. In these situations, the family environment that the child has is not the most conducive.

Have the children who have returned already managed to adapt here?

It's also case by case, because it depends on the language. The best-adapted children are those whose parents maintained a Spanish-language education. For those children it is a little easier. There are many children who do not know how to speak Spanish at all, and for them, despite having spent five years, and some of them are already in university, they tell me 'I don't feel well, it's not my country, I want to be in Japan '. I think language is very important, and parents cannot require children to speak two languages ​​well. I believe that parents have to make the decision, whether to be here or to be there, but they cannot be between two worlds.

Does the issue of identity necessarily involve language?

I would say yes, I am not a specialist in these issues, but the way I have collected the data, for example, when the kids tell me 'I don't know what I'm doing here, I don't feel that this is my country, I don't feel that I understand the people I talk to', I think that there we are touching part of their identity.

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Ana Sueyoshi: Graduate in Economics from the Universidad del Pacífico. He completed a Master's degree in International Development and Public Policy at the Graduate School of International Political Economy and the World Bank - University of Tsukuba, Japan, where he also studied the Doctorate in International Political Economy at the Faculty of International Relations.

She worked at the Research Center of the Universidad del Pacífico, was a consultant for the UNDP and an advisor to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on Macroeconomic Policy. Since April 2006 she is an assistant professor at Utsunomiya University - Faculty of International Studies, Department of Social Sciences. He has been in Japan for 12 years.

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* This article is published thanks to the agreement between the Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ) and the Discover Nikkei Project. Article originally published in the APJ magazine Kaikan Informativo , No. 34.

Texto y foto © 2009 Asociación Peruano Japonesa; Fotos Japón: © 2009 Ana Sueyoshi