Kikokushijo
Kikokushijo (帰国子女, lit. "returnee children") and kaigaishijo (海外子女, lit. "overseas children") are Japanese-language terms referring to the children of Japanese expatriates who take part of their education outside Japan. The former term is used to refer to children who have returned to Japan, while the latter refers to such children while they are still overseas. They are referred to in English variously as "sojourn children" or "returnees".[1][2] The term "third culture kids" is used by other countries.[3]
Prevalence
As of 2002, roughly 10,000 children of Japanese expatriates return to Japan every year, with a total of roughly 50,000 residing overseas at any one time, a number that had remained roughly constant during the previous decade after rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s.[4] Only 40% attend Japanese schools while living overseas.[5]
Challenges
The Japanese Ministry of Education recognised as early as 1966 that Japan's school system faced challenges in the education and re-integration of children who had returned from overseas.[6] Under the idea of nihonjinron, which stressed the alleged uniqueness of Japanese society, kikokushijo began to be characterised in the 1970s as problem children who needed assistance in readjusting to Japanese society; they were thought to be too Westernised and individualistic.[5] Much of the image of kikokushijo as "educational orphans" in need of "rescue" came from the parents of such children. During the 1980s, however, kikokushijo came to be seen as a new elite rather than as problems; their language and cultural skills gained respect as valuable tools for the internationalisation of Japan.[7] As of 1997, over 300 universities offered relaxed admissions criteria for kikokushijo, a system which had been attacked as preferential treatment and reverse discrimination.[8] They are often misperceived as fluent speakers of English, though many in fact resided in non-Anglophone countries.[9]
See also
- Gireogi appa – a South Korean term
- Haigui – Chinese term for graduate returnees
References
- ^ Fry 2007: 131
- ^ Kanno 2000: 1
- ^ Kano-Podolsky 2004: 76. The term kikokushijo is more well-known both in Japan and in the English literature about them. Awareness in the United States of third-culture kids and the issues they face is much lower than similar awareness of kikokushijo in Japan.
- ^ Kano-Podolsky 2004: 71, 74
- ^ a b Iwabuchi 1994
- ^ Kano-Podolsky 2004: 72
- ^ Kano-Podolsky 2004: 73
- ^ Kanno 2000: 4
- ^ Kano-Podolsky 2004: 74
Sources
- Iwabuchi, Koichi (1994). Tom O'Regan (ed.). "Complicit exoticism: Japan and its other". The Australian Journal of Media and Culture. 8 (2). Archived from the original on 2007-11-20. Retrieved 2007-11-09.
- Kanno, Yasuko (2000). "Bilingualism and Identity" (PDF). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 3 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1080/13670050008667697. S2CID 143033125. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
- Fry, Rieko (2007). "Perspective shifts and a theoretical model relating to kaigaishijo and kikokushijo, or third culture kids in a Japanese context". Journal of Research in International Education. 6 (2): 131–50. doi:10.1177/1475240907078610. S2CID 143721149.
- Kano Podolsky, Momo (2004-01-31). "Crosscultural upbringing: A comparison of the "Third Culture Kids" framekwork and "Kaigai/Kikokushijo" studies" (PDF). Gendai Shakai Kenkyū. 6: 67–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
Further reading
- Pang, Ching-Lin (彭靜蓮, Pinyin: Péng Jìnglián) (February 2000). Negotiating Identity in Contemporary Japan: The Case of the Kikokushijo. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-7103-0651-7.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Goodman, Roger (1990). Japan's "International Youth": The Emergence of a New Class of Schoolchildren. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-827897-9.
- Fry, Rieko (Witan International College). "Politics of education for Japanese returnee children." Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education. Volume 39, Issue 3, 2009. Published online: 24 Apr 2009.
- Kanno, Yasuko. "Kikokushijo as bicultural" (Archive). International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 24 (2000) 361-382. DOI 10.1016/S0147-1767(00)00006-7. See text version and profile at Science Direct.
- Erratum: "Erratum Kikokushijo as bicultural" (Archive). International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Volume 24, Issue 5, September 2000, Page 723.
- Lin Pang Ching [sic] (Catholic University of Leuven Department of Anthropology). "Controlled internationalization: The case of kikokushijo from Belgium." International Journal of Educational Research. Volume 23, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 45–56. Available online 20 January 2000. DOI 10.1016/0883-0355(95)93534-3.
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