logo Shijo-Tsushin #20 March, 2000

The FEATURE

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.

Translated by Yumi KOIZUMI from original in Japanese.

Keiko

I am a returnee myself, and there was a time when I resented others envying my overseas experience. I certainly did have my hard times when I moved to the US at the age of ten, and when people envy my experience, it just made me think "Now are you so sure you'd want that same experience????? You don't have a clue what I went through!"

Because I missed the US so much when I moved back to Japan, although I was not having problems adapting to my new environment, I thought "I wish I hadn't gone to the US at all if leaving there was gonna be so hard."

Yes, I was taken to the US when I didn't want to, and I was forced to come back to Japan when I didn't want to. Right, I wasn't at all ready for it!

But then I came to think that my life has indeed been worthy enough for people to envy. I mean, I got to experience so much more than most people have.

So, now I know what it feels like to struggle or be lonely, and I also know what it means to have somebody there, being kind to me in such times.
I hope to make use of that experience, being there for someone who needs a friend, and create a wonderful bunch of friends.

Maybe I sound too idealistic.

But what I went through in the past is the past...and the circumstances that I'm in right now is reality.
If I don't make the best of it...... I'm the one who's missing out.
But if you really feel you don't fit back into Japan, I don't think you have to stay just because it's your home country.

Even now I miss the US from time to time. When I visit , I sometimes feel more relaxed and at ease in the US.

Who knows what will become of me!?

cat2

Fuko

The culture of assimilation still prevails in Japan rather than the individuality. I think, however, that Hikaru Utada and Daishin Kashimoto are the good examples of the successful returnees. (Am I too naive to say this? And they are freelancers...)

Anyway, it is important to evaluate your own life to perfect it from time to time, whether or not you go abroad. That would help us throw away the old virtues, take in the new values and to make it an integral part of our life.

I have never left Japan for longer than a certain period of time, but more or less I experience bullying and loneliness. People tend to bully others when they lose confidence in themselves.