Shijo-Tsushin #20 March, 2000
People Call Me a Kikokushijo (Returnee)
This article is compiled from discussion in the Japanese section of our Bulletin Board.
The English section of the BBS is here.
Forced to Struggle or Not |
RMy recent concern is that some of the Japanese living abroad label others as"Oh, he/she is a kikokushijo". Some people go abroad after graduating from university as exchange students or on business. Others may search for a new life on their own will. Although they may have lived overseas for more than ten years, longer than those kikokushijo who lived abroad for two or three years when young, some of those people regard themselves as "pure" Japanese who have moved overseas only after growing up and therefore different from kikokushijo. It has been a while since the publicly coined term "kikokushijo" somehow became a norm itself. I am fed up with the phenomenon of calling someone kikokushijo although the person has not returned (kikoku) to Japan in the first place and has passed the age of shijo (boys and girls) long time ago. Such a labeling precisely represents the narrow mindedness of the Japanese society, which cannot keep up with the flows of the people and activities in the global era. Can't we just regard the interrelation with other countries as a normal course of things? After all, it is a reality that the lives of the Japanese people are based on a close relationship with other countries.
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MI am a returnee myself and think that the perception and the way of thinking is totally different between the returnees and those who went abroad on their own will such as exchange students. I cannot generalize since many factors, including the countries where one lived, the ages and the number of years one spent abroad, influence such perception.Well, since I am a returnee myself, all I can say is that the returnees have gone through a hard time and never wished to go abroad. The difference between the returnees and others who have lived abroad is that the returnees were forced to struggle whereas the others willingly struggled. It is hard to say which is better or easier, isn't it? The meanings of living overseas were just different for them. I never thought that the Japanese overseas would also discriminate the returnees, but there may be such people wherever we are. Just like Japanese who hate anything different from what they can understand, don't you think? Maybe they think accepting the foreign virtues would ruin the Japanese virtues. All I want to do is to take the good side of the both countries... (^^)
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