Record foreign children in Japan need help with Japanese in school.
Japan's educational system struggles to keep pace with its growing foreign population, leading to increasing language challenges for foreign-nationality children.
As Japan’s foreign population grows, so does the number of foreign children who need help learning Japanese. In 2008, there were 28,757 foreign-nationality kids in public schools requiring extra Japanese instruction; by 2023, that number surged to 57,718. The growth means schools are struggling to keep up, often lacking qualified teachers who can provide the specialized Japanese-as-a-second-language (JSL) lessons. Many schools are forced to hire outside help due to staff shortages, leading to a heavier burden on JSL instructors who must cover multiple schools.
As the diversity of foreign families increases, the challenge becomes greater—teachers often can’t speak a child’s native language, making it harder to communicate with parents too. This situation isn’t just a school issue; if not addressed, these language barriers can cause kids to fall behind academically and socially, leading to disciplinary problems in classrooms. The current educational framework isn't adapting fast enough for these changing demographics, which means that, without intervention, these children may face serious challenges in their futures.
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