Thank you for finding it, October 10 14:46

"I was scared of going to school"
There is a 13-year-old boy who was unable to go to school for five months and spent online games at home from morning to night. In addition to anxiety about Japanese school life, family circumstances also prevented school attendance. My parents are working together and working hard as a temporary employee. Only the boy could take care of the younger sister.
A national survey found for the first time that there could be as many as 20,000 foreign children in the country.
(Network reporter reporter Asako Wada)

I can't go even if I want to go

Chicote Thunder (13), a Filipino citizen, came to Japan with his 8-year-old sister in April last year when he was invited by his parents working as temporary workers in Matsusaka City, Mie Prefecture.

Mr. Thunder, who lived with his grandmother in his home country, was excited about the joy of living with his family and the expectations of living in Japan, but that gradually turned into anxiety.
Even if I listened to the words or looked at the letters, I couldn't understand them. Even if you go to a public elementary school in Japan, there is no reason to be able to attend classes, and there are no friends in Japan.
Even if I wanted to go to a foreign school where the language was spoken, it was not in the area where I lived.
Parents leave the house early in the morning and head to the factory where they work on the shared bus from the dispatch company. The parents entrusted Thunder to take care of Seiro (8), a younger sister.
My parents worked hard at night, leaving two children at home during the day.

There was nothing to distract me when I went outside.
The days with my sister and my back turned and started playing online games in the room from morning to night.

Also near us? About 20,000 children not attending school

A survey by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology revealed for the first time that nearly 20,000 children, such as Thunder, who are not attending school or who are likely to go to school, go up nationwide.

However, as of May, we examined foreign children aged 6 to 14 with resident registration, and found that there were 1000 children who were not attending elementary school, junior high school, and foreign school.
In addition, there were a total of 18,654 children who tried to confirm whether the local government was “not attending school” by telephone or home visit, but could not confirm or surveyed.

Foreigners are not subject to compulsory education

Why is this happening?
Until now, the country and many local governments have not been able to accurately determine how many foreign children go to school.
This is because foreigners are not subject to compulsory education.
The Japanese Constitution imposes obligations on “people” to receive education in elementary and junior high schools. In other words, foreign guardians are excluded from the list because they are not “nationals”.
If the country wants parents to go to school based on international human rights regulations, it will accept it at public schools like Japanese people, and the reality is that there is a difference in temperature depending on the local government.

Tokyo Edogawa Ward

For this reason, this survey highlighted the difficulty of local governments in understanding the actual condition of children.
One of them is Tokyo's Edogawa Ward, where most foreign children live in Tokyo.

The ward began by examining how many children were not enrolled in public elementary and junior high schools.
If 2,813 people registered in public elementary and junior high schools in the city are subtracted from 2,457 people registered in the Basic Resident Register, the number has risen to over 1,000.

When I surveyed about 1,000 people, I found that 540 people attended foreign schools in Tokyo.

In addition, when inquiring to the Immigration Bureau, it was found that 102 people had returned to Japan without reporting to the ward.

After four months of research, 434 children cannot be confirmed as going to school. The results were reported to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
The ward continued to investigate and narrowed down to 138 people on the 20th of last month (September), but there were many households that could not be contacted, and it was said that they realized the difficulty of grasping the actual situation.

“There is no doubt that this is a serious survey. It is difficult for several staff members in charge to visit nearly 140 households one by one. In the future, we will further narrow down and cooperate with the Child and Family Support Center. I would like to connect it to a door-to-door visit ”(Tajima)

“Unenrolled” children who cannot be found without searching

Mr. Thunder, who had been unable to go to school for 5 months. Last October, a man visited his home.

"Are there any children of the age who go to school?"
It was Naoki Nishiyama's supervisor of Matsusaka City Board of Education.
Matsusaka City has been conducting a survey every year for a list of foreign children who have been registered for 12 years but are not enrolled in public elementary and junior high schools.
In the past 10 years, we have visited more than 500 families, found 15 “out-of-school” children and connected them to school.

“If you do not visit, you will not be able to find unaccompanied children without fail. Parents who work will often not be able to meet even if they visit, and even if they meet, they will not be understood just by talking once. I don't think there are any parents who don't want to go to school, so I removed the wall part and connected it to the school. " )

“I want you to come to school anyway”

Thunder and his sister Seiro were also on the list last year.
Mr. Nishiyama visited every Tuesday at 6:30 pm and listened to Mr. Thunder and his father, Lawrence (45), at the front door to eliminate anxiety.

Mr. Thunder, who was worried about language, can learn Japanese from the beginning in a classroom for children run by the City Board of Education while attending school, and some classes also gather children from the Philippines. I explained that there is a support system that allows you to receive in friendly Japanese.

About one month after the visit, Mr. Thunder transferred to the sixth grade of elementary school.
“What was the deciding factor in going to school most?”
When asked, he answered, laughing.

“Since Mr. Nishiyama comes every week, I think it ’s easy to go.” (Thunder)

“The children continued to play the game until 1 o'clock every night and never went outside. I never thought this was a good situation, but at that time I couldn't do anything. "If I couldn't get my child to go to school, it's weekly now, but Mr. Nishiyama told me that he came every day and became more persistent."

Nishiyama says that it is not a matter of nationality that children cannot learn at a time when they must learn.

"At that time, Thunder-kun thought his hair was long and his expression was dark, and he was not in good condition. I was convinced many times that he wanted me to come to school anyway. I'd like you to study, get involved with friends, and have experiences that you can only do at school.I want you to learn and go out to society when you have to learn. I think this is true for all children. ”

If you don't find me ...

Mr. Thunder has been studying at junior high school since this spring.
I made a lot of friends and gradually began to follow classes.
Now I belong to the basketball club and work with my friends.

In the classroom, Thunder's goal written in hiragana was raised.

It's been almost a year since I was able to get out of the state of not attending school.
I asked Thunder about his feelings.

“If you didn't find it, I wouldn't go to school and stay home. Thank you for finding me and bringing me to school.”

In this country's survey, there were a total of 18,654 children who could not confirm whether or not the local government was “not attending school”.
I don't know how many children were in the state that Thunder once experienced.
We will continue to cover this issue.

We are looking for actual experiences and opinions on the following special sites.

“Foreigners“ depending on Japan ”