Kaori Okano

The global–local interface in multicultural education policies in Japan

This paper examines interactions between the global and the local in the context of Japanese mainstream schooling, by focusing on the development of local government policies to manage diversity in schools. This paper reveals how local governments developed education policies in interaction with grassroots professional groups, activists and schools, and by selectively incorporating national policies. These local policies are multicultural education policies but differ in two significant ways. The first is their predominant concern with human rights education, leaving celebration of cultural diversity as a marginal consideration, and the other is the official use of the term ‘foreigners’ in the title of these policies; both of which reflect the pre‐existing local context. The paper demonstrates that new immigrants do not unilaterally impact on supposedly ethnically homogeneous Japanese classrooms, but that the pre‐existing local contexts (national, local and institutional) have mediated global forces in effecting changes.

Habitus and intraclass differentiation: nonuniversity‐bound students in Japan

This paper explores the mechanisms guiding differentiation among nonuniversity‐bound high schoolers from disadvantaged families in their job decision making and acquisition. Examining microlevel schooling processes over one year, it is argued that one differentiation mechanism is the individuals varying perceptions and consequent uses of school‐based resources that, in principle, are available to all within the school but, in reality, are not fully utilized by all. The paper then seeks to explain the mechanisms whereby these variations emerge and draw upon habitus as an analytical tool. It suggests that variations result from an interaction of individual habitus (within the “collective” habitus of nonuniversity‐bound students) and available resources (family‐based and school‐based) and that the ways in which these resources are presented to individual students are influential. School and family can in fact “intervene” in the students perception and activation of the resources. The highly structured prac...

Language in Schools in Asia: Globalisation and Local Forces

When watching the Athens Olympics Opening Ceremony on television, my 8-year-old daughter quite innocently asked me if ‘white people’ outnumber all other peoples in the world. When I asked her why she posed such a question, she said that she had seen mostly ‘white people’ participating in the ceremony. My daughter’s estimation based on her observation was reasonable: participants from Asia and Africa accounted for approximately a quarter of the Games’ participants (International Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committee Department, 2005). Demographic data show that these regions comprise about three quarters of the global population (United Nations, Population Division, 2005). One can speculate, as I explained to my inquisitive daughter, why such a gap exists – for example, in terms of the level of national resources required for promising athletes to compete at that level, the relative geographical location of the host nation, and possibly, the inclination of people in some countries to participate in the types of sports that happen to be designated as Olympic sports. Her question reminded me of a similar feeling about the composition of participants that I experienced at the conference from which this volume originated, and which prompted me to pursue this collection. The International Conference in Language, Education and Diversity (held at Waikato University, New Zealand, 26–29 November 2003) involved both academics and practitioners and was one of the most friendly and enjoyable that I have attended. This volume brings together papers on contemporary Asia. The aim of this special issue is to examine how global forces have impacted on policies and practices in relation to languages in schools, in interaction with national and local forces. By focusing on languages-in-education in multilingual societies, the volume hopes to illuminate the global-national-institutional-local interface in one aspect of institutional schooling and make a small contribution to opening up the black box of this interface. To this end, we shall draw on studies of four societies: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan. Most nation-states in Asia are multilingual entities, although extent and nature of multilingualism varies greatly. At one end of the continuum, people in India, for example, have long regularly used many languages, some of which have held more power and prestige than others at different historical times. Most Indians are bilingual or trilingual, using different languages in specific domains, public and private. On the other end, Japan, while projecting itself to be a relatively homogeneous and monolingual society, has had long-existing

Transnational Migration and Urban Education in Japan

One of the most pressing issues facing urban education in Japan is how best migrant children can be integrated into the mainstream schooling and the host society. The paper reveals how the national government, local education boards and individual schools have devised measures to meet the needs of migrant children, nevertheless their retention rates beyond compulsory education remain substantially below the national average. The paper argues that governmental school programs alone have been inadequate, and that free, migrant-specific out-of-school programs (e.g., remedial academic coaching and entrance examination preparation) play increasingly significant roles in filling the gaps. Collaboration between local schools and out-of-school programs has emerged in some localities, and is effective in promoting migrant children’s participation in schooling. The increasing visibility of free out-of-school programs for migrant children has directed public attention to children from poor families who similarly struggle at school.

Revolutionary Suicide and Other Desperate Measures: Narratives of Youth and Violence from Japan and the United States

was rarely incorporated in the public discourse under Mao but has re-emerged to become part of the systemic and symbolic violence of global capitalism and the state’s prevailing neoliberal ideology. These joint forces ultimately produce the subjective feeling of shame experienced by migrant women. In both studies there are somewhat protective gestures towards the rural-to-urban migrant domestic workers, which in a broader context resonate with the deep concern shared by Chinese critical intellectuals – both overseas and within China – with the disturbing effects and worrying consequences of global modernity, characterised by neoliberal ideology and free-market rationality. In this sense, Yan could have complicated the notion of “modernity” if she took into account different yet ascending voices speaking against transnational capitalism and neoliberal governmentality within and outside China while still advocating the relevance of Marxism to post-socialist China. These continuing forces that shape and re-negotiate modernity are inherent in the notion of Chinese modernity itself. Both books bring together highly readable stories of and about domestic workers in addition to insightful theoretical engagements. Scholars researching on China, media, migration, gender studies, cultural studies, labour, development and modernity studies would all benefit from these two books.

The Dialectic of Globalisation, Identity, and Local Activism: Multicultural Education Policies in Japan

‘Multicultural education policies in Japan’ sounds contradictory in itself. Japan not only projects itself as an ethnically and linguistically homogeneous nation but most citizens share that view. In 1986 Prime Minister Nakasone declared that ethnic homogeneity, when compared with multi-ethnic US, has benefited Japanese society in terms of economic progress and social stability, causing outrage in the US (Schweisberg, 1986; New York Times, 1986). The modern Japanese state was underpinned by ethnic nationalism in the mid nineteenth century, but the empire it built in the next several decades was a multi-ethnic entity, incorporating peoples in the expanded territories. The post-war ‘democratic’ Japan was, however, conceived as mono-ethnic polity, depriving former colonial subjects of Japanese nationality. Throughout the modern Japan’s trajectory, the dominance of ‘ethnic Japanese’ has continued. The system of education has disseminated ‘modern’ knowledge, and nurtured a sense of what it is to be ‘Japanese’. In this process it has taken various measures to assimilate other ethnic groups under its umbrella. This seems to have been successful, despite local activism which has pursued social justice for ethnic minorities. Long-existing distinctive ethnic groups (i.e. indigenous peoples Ainu and Okinawans, and long-time residents of Korean and Chinese descent) have become, to casual observers, ‘invisible’, since many individuals have ‘assimilated’ to mainstream Japanese society through schooling. However, they still remain ethnic minorities, seen as ‘different’ from the mainstream and marginalised in the society. It was against this backdrop that globalising forces started affecting Japanese schools in the late 1980s. On the one hand, the perceived need for Japan to make contributions to global and regional politics and to maintain a competitive edge in the global economy drove the central government’s adoption of the ‘internationalisation of education’. Critics argued that this ‘internationalisation’ policy was economically oriented, Japan-centric, and nationalistic (e.g. Lincicome, 1993).

Japanese working‐class girls in their first employment: transition to adulthood

Experience of entry into the workforce varies across societies (each offering a particular set of social conditions), and across social groups within a society. This article examines how urban Japanese working‐class girls made sense of their first permanent full‐time employment and conceived the transition to adulthood over the period 1989–92. They experienced the seemingly certain link between high school and permanent full‐time jobs, and started working immediately after graduation. For them permanent full‐time jobs alone were not sufficient for engendering a sense of adulthood, and the nature of their experiences mattered. In order to feel a sense of growth towards adulthood, they needed to find realistic personal goals (which may seem trivial to others) and the required motivation to pursue them through their experience of work.