“Noticing the voices hidden in everyday life” September 26, 19:28

"Did my sister have a fever?"

"I'm the only one who can take care of my parents when they leave home

. "

It is based on the experiences of members who are responsible for daily household chores such as caring for young siblings, washing, and cleaning.

The actual situation and true intentions of young carers who are hard to say and do not notice.

Through theater, I listened carefully to the voice hidden in everyday life.

(Hiroko Ujiie, Metropolitan Area Bureau Reporter)

In the “real” daily life of high school students

In July this year, at Tokyo Metropolitan Chihaya High School in Toshima Ward, members of the drama club were practicing for the upcoming national competition.

The title of the play to be performed is "Meeting at 9 am on July 29".

The story is about three high school boys and girls discussing the theme of a play for a cultural festival.

The title doesn't make much sense.

The undulating story is not developed, and the play progresses indifferently.

It is a work that focuses on depicting the daily life of high school students in a style that only sets the stage and pursues reality.

What unfolds in such a play is a simple conversation about family and school life.

If you watch it as if you were peering into the daily lives of high school students, you will occasionally come across scenes that make you startled.

It was based on the "experience of the club members"

For example, there is a scene in which one student explains why he was late when three members of the club meet up for a meeting at the beginning.

"What were you doing?"

"My sister got a fever." "

Huh

? Are you okay

?

" So I prepared a porridge, made rice porridge, and gave him some medicine..."

In this scene, the club members skillfully prepare food and medicine and take care of the younger sister who has a fever so as not to be late for the meeting.

The motif of the scene is a "young carer" who is responsible for daily household chores and family care that should normally be done by adults.

The line was based on the actual experience of a club member with four siblings.

She prepares meals for her siblings when her parents are away, and since her youngest brother was born, she has taken on housework such as cleaning and laundry.

On the other hand, he took such daily life for granted and didn't even know the word "young carer".

A member with four siblings

"I don't even know what a young carer is in the first place. I take care of my siblings, but I feel like I don't think of myself as a young carer"

It was a conversation between Mr. Yo Kashiwagi, the representative of the NPO who has been teaching the drama club for some time, and the members of the club, which gave him the opportunity to use this kind of experience in theater, even though he himself was not aware of it.

Kashiwagi-san and his club members work together to come up with a theme and a script while talking about their daily lives when deciding on the theme of the play, in order to use it as a hint for a play that pursues reality.

During that time, Mr. Kashiwagi noticed that many of the club members had the experience of being young carers, so he decided to discuss this issue with the club members.

Yo Kashiwagi, the representative of the NPO that coached them,

“When we practice, we often chat, but when I listen to what the club members have to say, I hear that there are younger siblings in the family and adults who need care. The motif of this time is how much the need to act as a caregiver affects school life.The way high school students see and think about the world. But I think it would be interesting to see it appear in theater as it is.”

Young Carers Hard to Notice

In the play, there are many scenes about the Young Carer.

However, it is not emphasized on purpose.

For example, a student who is late for a meeting talks about the situation at home.

" I

'm busy in the morning and haven't eaten."

"Oh, my little sister has a fever.

"

Isn't that

right?"

Just when you think the conversation is going to deepen from here... the topic soon shifts to the topic of videos that the siblings are interested in.

They take caring for their families for granted and do not emphasize how difficult it is.

And the people around you will miss it if you don't listen carefully.

It symbolizes the reality that it is difficult to notice the reality of young carers.

Even in the following scene, another big problem concerning young carers is taken up.

A student who happened to find an article about a fact-finding survey of young carers in the newspaper murmured:

"When I look at the newspaper, I don't feel like I'm talking about myself. When I look at the news, I don't feel connected to myself. Even if we have a problem, we don't even think to talk about it. We think we can solve it." No.” They do

not

have the option of “consulting” in the first place, and it is difficult even to come up with words to express their pain and suffering.

The hidden message is that it is important for the adults around them to notice the existence of young carers because it is difficult for those involved to recognize themselves as young carers.

Yo Kashiwagi, the representative of the NPO

who instructed the students, “I won’t explain everything, and I think it’s just a stage where you can see the daily lives of high school students. I think it's an adult.By turning the actual situation into a work and seeing it as it is, if many people can have a "eye to notice", the chances of changing the situation of young carers will increase. I think that if that can be conveyed, then this work will have meaning.”

"I can't complain" even if I feel burdened

The national tournament is about half a month away, mid-July this year.

In high school classrooms, in order to improve the degree of perfection of the play, the audience was invited to the school performance.

Before the performance, the club members carefully practiced the final climax scene.

When one of the main characters tries to speak his true feelings as a young carer, it is drowned out by the voices of the club members reading aloud.

The surrounding voices, named the "curtain of sound", are an example of the young carer's own "guilt".

It expresses complicated feelings such as "Is it okay for me to feel dissatisfied with care even though I am a member of the family?"

Mr. Kashiwagi, who instructed the theater, was told by a member who takes care of his siblings, "I feel that it is natural for me to help my family, so I don't think I should be honest, and I feel a burden. I can't say what I want to say."

The "curtain of sound" stops when the main character hits the desk, and the true feelings of the young carer are told.

"Someday I won't have to help out either." "

I hate it when I think that other people aren't doing it."

"I was happy when I was asked to help.

" It happened.

”

(Everyone) “Why did it turn out like this?”

After this, the play closed in the form that the theme of the play was not decided, and it ended without solving the problem of the young carer.

When I finished watching the work, I didn't get the impression that I had seen the growth and bright future of the high school students.

There is a feeling that I got a glimpse of the real life of high school students, including the problem of young carers.

Mr. Yo Kashiwagi, the representative of the NPO that instructed,

“There are many people who are in trouble with the problem of young carers, so I decided that I should not do it at least for now to solve this problem. If there were more situations that could be solved in reality, I might create fiction as a hope. I thought that making it would get in the way of people who are suffering.That's why we can make it until ``There is such a state.'' Without changing their real image, this work I think the challenge this time is to see how much you can understand.”

The reality of high school students and the true intentions of young carers hidden there.

The director, who played one of the leading roles, said that he wanted the audience to notice the message contained in the play and to think about the existence of young carers.

Yuka Nishimatsu, Director of the Chihaya High School Drama Club

“There are many fun things to do in high school life, and I think it must be difficult for the person himself to not be able to experience those things while caring for his family. I hope that the existence and situation of young carers will be known through this.”

Interview postscript

On July 31st of this year, I (reporter) went to see the All-Japan High School Culture Festival in which the Chihaya High School Drama Club participated.

Chihaya High School participated in the top batter.

The performance lasted about an hour, but I got the impression that it was over in a blink of an eye, with each and every member of the club performing well.

When the performance ended, the audience gave a big round of applause, and Mr. Nishimatsu, the director, said with a relieved expression, "I'm glad that everyone was able to perform safely."

Mr. Kashiwagi, who coached the team, said with a smile, "The reaction from the audience was good. I want to give them 300 million points for their hard work over the past year."

According to a national survey, about 1 in 17 second-year junior high school students and about 1 in 24 full-time high school second-year students answered that they have a family member who takes care of them.

Through this interview, I felt that there are many children who do not realize that they are young carers in the first place.

I would like to continue collecting data so that I can listen more closely to the hidden “voices” of everyday life, and be able to recognize those voices and extend a helping hand.

Metropolitan Area Bureau Reporter

Hiroko Ujiie Joined the Bureau in

2010

After working at the Okayama and Niigata

Bureaus, covered a wide range of topics, mainly in the medical and educational fields of the Metropolitan Area Bureau.