May 8, 2019

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Motomura Nobuko on May 7 visited Chiryu City in Aichi Prefecture to conduct a fact-finding survey regarding the educational environment of schools accepting foreign children.

Chiryu City has a population of 72,000 and the number of foreign residents, mainly from Brazil, the Philippines, China, Peru, and Vietnam, is approximately 5,000, the largest concentrated foreign population in the prefecture.

Motomura together with JCP city assemblymembers visited Chiryuhigashi elementary school where 44 of 52 first graders are foreign nationals. The school operates a program under which foreign children aged between 6 and 15 who newly arrived in the city with their parents have Japanese lessons and learn common manners and customs in Japan for three months. The number of foreign children who need to improve their Japanese language skills has exceeded 400.

At the school, Motomura held talks with the head of the city education board’s administrative body.

The city official said that the city has its own backup system for foreign children attending Japanese schools, but that it is insufficient. He added that as the number of immigrant children in the city is increasing, the city government will face difficulties in maintaining this system, demanding state support which includes government subsidies.

In response, Motomura said, “I’ll work hard to push the central government to provide funding for the co-existence of Japanese with people from different countries. I’ll conduct Diet discussions based on this survey and the city’s demand.”

Past related article:
> Gov’t proposes bill to accept more foreign workers without addressing existing human rights violations [November 3, 2018]